Just returned from a touring holiday with my 72 year old father in his Peugeot 806 with cruise control.
He thinks it is a great idea but personally it worried me sick!
I sat in the passenger seat and realised that he was totally "addicted" to it, to such an extent he was using it on a single track road with passing places!
But what worries me even more is that if he falls asleep, or god forbid, have a heart attack or something then the car will continue to go until something solid stops it!
What is the backroom's opinion? If you have cruise control, do you think that you use it more than just for cruising on long roads? Do you think that by using it you lose your concentration and your response times?
|
Spot on, BobbyG.
Every VW Group diesel product built with a TDi engine has cruise control present as part of the ECU software.
I did this, years ago. I was formally reprimanded for it, and functionality was removed, for addition only within VagCom as people really used cruise control. It was seen as a wondrous benefit.
The problem came in situations such as you describe, when it took a lot longer to get a foot on a pedal from a relaxed position than it would from a position covering the brake pedal.
All diesel owners need to activate CC is a stalk, £80 from a dealer or a fiver from a scrappie, and a friendly dealer to activate my flag in VagCom.
|
|
|
I think cruise control could be good for motorway or dual carriageway driving when traffic is light and in daylight hours. The falling asleep thing is valid up to a point as you could easy fall asleep and lean on the acclerator and head into the scenery that way. Perhaps there should be some sort of activity monitor so if you don't press a button to say 'i'm still concious' then it deactivates and starts beeping loudly. Not sure what it would do for deaf drivers so perhaps the steering wheel needs a vibrate function like mobile phones do! Maybe there should be limits on hours of the day and age groups that should use it. If cars get any less involving to drive there is a greater danger of wandering attention as you could end up feeling you are sitting in a chauffer driven arm chair and you forget you are the chauffer.
I can see it could lead to greater alertness in some circumstances as it means you can boogy along to the cd player/radio/old fashioned cassette tape tapping both your feet without having your speed vary erratically ;-)
teabelly
|
Hello teabelly,
Most folks in the UK probably don't understand just what CC does.
Once set, you take both feet off all pedals. Period.
I thought this was very good.
All TDis have this functionality.
It takes a while to get feet back on a pedal though. Unrest. Upset. Dead man's handle. All that.
Probably not practical over here.
|
Sorry wasn't specific enough. With cruise control you can tapdance your feet on the carpet by the pedals and stay at the same speed. Without cruise control you would slow down without a foot on the accelerator and if you were tapping your right foot up and down it would lead to some odd car behaviour. Hope that clears up what I meant. I am over here which is why I suggested a lightly trafficked dual carriageway or motorway would be the only place you could safely use it. It might be entertainment to set it at 50 mph and career up clapham high road but not advisable. It might make a good basis for a playstation game though... 'cruise of terror?'
Incidentally in a manual car with cruise control set when heading up a hill what happens if the gear you are in is too high to get up it at the preset speed? Does it just grind to a halt?
teabelly
|
this scares the life out of me as well, I had to use a pool car from work yesterday (BMW 320d) that had cruise control on and was very good, the other halfs volvo also had it and we find it great for those long motorway drives to scotland and such like,
However my dad and also father in-law are both getting new cars soon (subaru forester and astra estate elegance) both cars come with cruise control, this will be great for my dad its a company car and he does a lot of motorway driving but im scared stiff that one of them will have it set and go ploughing into stationary traffic or something, I dont personally think it is relaxing to drive with, i think you have to concentrate twice as much on whats going on, plan overtakes and such like much further in advance so you don't get boxed in and generally take way more time deciding things, its fine on a quite road at 4 in the morning heading off to scotland but no good for circumnavigating the '25 day after day. I think CC should come with a warning or switch off after a certain amount of time for so long or something like that.
|
Or get distronic ...
www.waitnews.com/mercedes_distronic.htm
www.mercedes-benz.com/e/cars/s-class/facts_e4.htm
I know I know .. expensive ... give it time and it'll be in a Micra ...
;P
rojer@lycos.co.uk
Astra, Renault 18, Renault 25 TXi, Astra Est, Passat Est, Mercedes 190E, Mercedes
|
|
|
I regularly use cruise control on the M6 (e.g. Saturday evenings)and I find it helps my concentration - rather than worry about my speed I can worry about the traffic ahead of me.
I find that I get an uncomfortable feeling when traffic starts bunching, and in those circumstances knock it off temporarily.
I don't understand the comment about planning overtakes further in advance - if you drive at a constant speed anyway (which in my view is the best approach on a motorway) it makes no difference. (Drivers who vary speed going up or downhill, and those who approach a slower vehicle and then brake as if it's just appeared out of nowhere irritate me intensely, but that's another story).
I also use it to stick to 30 on several local roads where there are more speed cameras than street lights - I'm talking long straight stretches such as the promenade.
Where
|
|
Used it all over the states. No I don't think dropping off is a problem as your foot doesn't come off the throttle if you drop off anyway. CC is more fuel efficient thus cleaner and on open roads/quite motorways can be engaged for hours especially if more vehicles had it. Regards Peter
|
|
I live in France and use the CC on my Accord as a matter of course on the straightish, almost empty roads in this part of the world. CC on the Legend I had before was just as good/useful. Even better if you have an autobox of course - I guess some of us are just bone lazy...
|
|
|
|
|
|
£12,999was £13,599Details
£52,450was £52,950Details
£11,895was £12,495Details
£8,489was £8,992Details
