# What does it mean if a car has cruise control? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2020, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345 "2020-04-22T13:57:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/21 "2020-04-22T19:05:55Z")
Cruise control is a godsend if you make long drives on freeways. LA - Las Vegas is a real slog without it. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/22 "2020-04-22T19:47:03Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The problem with adaptive cruise control is that it works too well. The slowing down is imperceptible. Suddenly you’ll realize that you’re driving ten mph below the speed limit because that’s what the car in front of you is doing. Why have cruise control if some other car is controlling your speed? > > If you’re paying attention to your speed - which you should be doing - it’s far better than having to brake to cut off the cruise, accelerate around, and slow to re-enter cruise smoothly. Just shift lanes and the new controls do it all for you without a jolt. Yes, I hate adaptive cruise control for this reason. I’m on a freeway in the slow lane and approach a car when it’s typically appropriate to pull into the next lane to pass them my speed is now to low to merge into traffic. I’ve turned it off in every car I’ve owned that had it. Any time traffic is heavy enough you need the car to slow you down regularly you should be driving not the car. > [@DPRK](#): > > Why do you need to upshift when going up a hill? But do the more advanced/autonomous cruise controls with lane following in general successfully shift and/or brake when cornering, downhill as well as up, in response to snow and ice, etc? The best cruise control I’ve had was on my 2014 BMW 535d. I dove up and down [Wolf Creek Pass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Creek_Pass) with my cruise control and my speed never varied 1 mph from its set point it was a miracle. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/23 "2020-04-22T20:02:02Z")
In England I find that the motorways are constantly so busy with vehicles going at all sorts of speeds (or at least they were until recently) that I rarely get a chance to use cruise control. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/24 "2020-04-22T20:04:37Z")
Cruise control on BMW or Tesla works just fine, keeps to the speed set whatever the terrain. I recall reading a complaint from someone in New Zealand who got a ticket in a Toyota because the cruise control downshifted for a hill and ended up exceeding the setting and getting him a ticket. Apparently the anal (i.e. money-hungry) NZ government photo-radar tickets vehicles at 5km/h (3mph) over the speed limit, because a 10kph-over threshold just didn’t bring in enough revenue. Also, recall the story about California cops stopping someone who fell asleep on autopilot in their Tesla - they got in front of the car and slowed down to a stop. I assume the guy had some gizmo to fake hands on the wheel (old joke is - stuff an orange in the wheel to simulate it being lightly tugged). Mine nags me every 30 seconds or so to tug on the wheel. I gather with the new version of autopilot, if you try to stop a car by slowing in front of it, it will simply change lanes and go around. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/25 "2020-04-22T20:09:59Z")
As a person that takes 1-2 thousand road trips. It’s quite nice. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/26 "2020-04-22T21:22:17Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Cruise control is a godsend if you make long drives on freeways. LA - Las Vegas is a real slog without it. I hear that the region around Barstow can be full of bats, especially problematic in a red convertible. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/27 "2020-04-22T21:59:04Z")
If you don’t speed, you don’t need adaptive speed control, because you’re just about never gaining on the person in front of you. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/28 "2020-04-22T21:59:23Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > Any time traffic is heavy enough you need the car to slow you down regularly you should be driving not the car. I’m gonna disagree. The adaptive cruise in my wife’s Acura is brilliant in SoCal traffic. In the course of a few miles you can go from 70mph to stop and go and back again and the car does everything (including slowing to a complete stop, then starting up again) with complete aplomb. I would never forego the option on a new car now, unless the implementation is borked, like it was on some anonymous small rental car I got a couple of months ago. That car could not slow to a stop. It just shut the system off completely at the 40mph threshold. That was less safe than nothing at all, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/29 "2020-04-22T22:11:09Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > If you don’t speed, you don’t need adaptive speed control, because you’re just about never gaining on the person in front of you. Around here, it’s not uncommon for drivers to be going 45 to 50 mph is a 55 zone. I blame texting. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/30 "2020-04-22T22:28:40Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > I’ve always thought of cruise control as an American thing, but more and more European cars also get it - goes along with the European trend of moving towards automatic gearboxes, as opposed to stick shifts, which are still predominant here. > > Myself I’ve driven with cruise control only once, but I found it really helps on long drives. Usage is easy: You drive at the desired speed, activate a switch, and the speed that you were going at that moment is locked in and maintained automatically, which means you can take your foot off the gas pedal. You can, of course, always override cruise control by accelerating or braking manually, but many times all you want to do is keep going at a constant speed. Did you use it on the autobahn? Because I can’t consider it useful on such busy roads. With all the usual madness going on, slow cars and trucks on the right lane, trucks suddenly changing lanes in front of you to overtake each other (mostly just at the beginning of a slope), asshole drivers you suddenly see zapping by in your mirror with 250 km/h, sudden jams lurking behind every curve, I wouldn’t give up control over the throttle for the life of me. For extended dead straight highways in parts of the US I see the usefulness, but not here. ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/31 "2020-04-22T23:15:02Z")
Our vehicles have had it for a while now. To be honest it’s rarely used, even on long road trips around here the roads are either too busy or too variable (curves, etc.). So I mostly don’t use it and prefer to just maintain speed myself. That said, on our recent trip to New Mexico the highways we were on were so straight and so devoid of other cars that I actually appreciated it quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/32 "2020-04-23T01:28:43Z")
Every car I’ve bought since 1989 has had it. I suspect that it’s a standard feature of all but low-priced cars here in the U.S. at this point, and probably at least an available option on those. As others have noted, living in a big urban area with lots of traffic, I rarely use my cruise control locally, as either I’m on surface roads (with lots of stoplights), or on highways with a lot of traffic. I do get a chance to use it when I’m driving home late at night (when traffic is lighter), or when I drive up to Wisconsin to visit family – once I get north of Milwaukee, the traffic becomes very light, and I’m on cruise control for the rest of the drive. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/33 "2020-04-23T08:09:10Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Did you use it on the autobahn? It was, but it was a night drive with not much traffic. And the car also had the adaptive feature mentioned by others. It’s true, I had to intervene periodically for reasons such as those you listed; but afterwards, you can easily switch cruise control on again and take your foot off the pedal for another run until your next intervention. It does add some convenience, and I think that ultimately it also improves safety simply by helping reduce driver fatigue. In addition, there is a tendency for human drivers, even when they intend to maintain a constant speed, to gradually go faster after a while without noticing it, so cruise control can also counteract that. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/34 "2020-04-23T08:14:09Z")
It automatically honks at hot chicks/ guys/ etc… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/35 "2020-04-23T15:13:31Z")
I’m convinced that I have a mysterious cruise control power that not infrequently manifests itself on Interstates. I’m tooling along in a non-passing lane at or slightly above the speed limit, when a car starts following me, not actually tailgating but too close for comfort. There’s plenty of room to pass, but the vehicle stays rooted in its spot. I gradually start to slow down to encourage Bozo to pass, but he slows down too. Eventually when I get down to 55 mph or so, a light bulb comes on and he swings out to pass, zooming ahead so that when I get back to normal speed he continues to fade in the distance. I call this “adaptive stupidity”. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/36 "2020-04-23T16:47:33Z")
I had to check to see what year this thread was started. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/37 "2020-04-23T16:52:22Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > If you don’t speed, you don’t need adaptive speed control, because you’re just about never gaining on the person in front of you. Bat pucky. There are these things called trucks. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them, but they drive much slower than the posted speed limit for automobiles. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/38 "2020-04-23T23:55:38Z")
Then there was the naive guy in a new RV who set cruise control ON and then went back to fix a pot of coffee. Oy. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/39 "2020-04-24T01:15:38Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Then there was the naive guy in a new RV who set cruise control ON and then went back to fix a pot of coffee. Oy. [Urban](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cruise-uncontrol/) [legend](http://heraldtribune.com/article/LK/20050203/news/605209362/SH). ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345/40 "2020-04-24T13:34:27Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > And because cruise control is better suited to a car with an automatic transmission rather than a manual. A car with an automatic can downshift on hills to maintain the speed, a manual can’t without the driver doing it, you know, manually… > > Automatics are more common in the US than in Europe. That makes sense. Do they not off cruise control on manual-shift cars these days? I had Prelude in the late 80s that was standard shift and it came with it. It seemed weird and I used it maybe once. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-mean-if-a-car-has-cruise-control/852345.md?page=3)