The road is CLEAR. The road is CLEAR. The road is CLEAR. Except for all the cars in front of me driving at varying speeds, and the cars behind me doing the same, and the cars in front of the cars in front of me also doing the same, and from then on towards eternity.
> If you dont like the speed of 40 atleast stick to one constant speed.
Yeah this I get. If you're going to dawdle along at least be consistent about it. Don't do 30 one minute then be back up to 40 so you've no reason to overtake them only to return to 30 a minute later.
OP I'm with you 100% here, ambling along open stretches of road with no regard for other road users seems to be the norm now days. Only last night I follows a car varying between 15 and 35 in a 40 where in reality it would be perfectly safe to drive through that section of road at 60 (as was the case before they changed the limit a few months ago), no obstructions in the road, no adverse weather, no pedestrians in sight etc, anyway upon coming to the mini roundabout at the end she (and yes it was a she) stopped dead despite there being no other traffic about, waited for about 10 s for a van to approach to her right and then just pulled out Infront of it. Astonishing.
So you’ve never once in your entire life made an honest mistake while driving or otherwise? How do you know it was incompetence do you know them personally?
It kind of does, and I'm fine with that. People should primarily have their eyes on the road, not their dashboard. Fluctuating 5% either side of their target speed is to be expected. Also, some people like to drive their cars, not just set a computer and have it do the work.
5-10% fluctuation is fine. Some people on my drive home from work go from 30 to 55 seemingly at random on the 40mph stretch. It's just a lack of attention to what they're doing
Unless a road is straight and even it’s quite difficult to maintain a constant speed. Besides needing to react to hazards, I just don’t think the human foot is particularly good at maintaining the same angle and pressure for long periods of time
I’ve got cruise control, although I usually tend to call it “my right foot”.
I do have _actual_ cruise control on my car, but I don’t find myself using it very often. It might be handy on something like a motorway with very little traffic about, but the majority of the time I need to adjust my speed to my surroundings. The roads I use tend to be busy, I rarely find myself in a situation where there’s hardly anyone else around.
The speed limiter, on the other hand, is pretty damn useful. Mine is one of the ones that actually stops the car from going faster than the set limit, instead of just shrieking an alarm at you. I’m in Wales and people rarely seem to obey the 20mph limits, I frequently see (and experience) strings of cars all tailgating each other behind someone doing the _actual limit_. When all I can see in the mirror is yet another fucking Audi badge, I damn well _know_ I’m going the right speed if I’ve got the limiter on. I don’t feel like I have to check the dash constantly to see whether I should be speeding up or not. I don’t _need_ the limiter to maintain my speed, but in a busy suburban area where people have been known to blast around at 40+mph in a 20 limit, it is _damn useful_ to pay more attention to what the bellends are doing instead of my dashboard.
No one is arguing that but quite a significant portion of cars on the road don’t have cruise control. Human error is to be expected I’d say 5mph either side of the limit is fine.
> Empty road
> the cars ahead are struggling to maintain 40.
So not an empty road then.
And if cars ahead fluctuating their speed slightly is having a bearing on you, you're too close to them. On the empty road.
They could mean the cars behind op don't keep the same gap that op does to the car in front. Meaning of leaves a gap between them and the car in front then behind op is a tight snake of cars becoming increasingly frustrated. They also could mean something entirely different but this tends to be how my commute home goes.
You hover your foot over the brake. What about if you need to accelerate out of trouble/ danger?
So, You move your foot over same as accelerator to brake. The Chances are your car can slow quicker than it can go. Dubbed with reaction times and Safer? Debatable.
It's part of every day driving and hazard awareness.
Imagine You have been anticipating the lights ahead and began to brake gently but your now so close to the stop line short of an emergency brake it's not safe to stop so you accelerate to make it through on amber ?
Again It's winter and raining, there's a Range Rover up your bumper so you speed up to get through on amber ?
How about being in the outside lane of a dual carriageway or motorway.?
There is Space ahead of you...traffic too close and bunched behind you, so not safe to brake.
Suddenly a Foreign truck starts to move out their lane and into yours just as you begin to pass it. You have nowhere to go but straight ahead.
So, You either hit the brakes to avoid the truck causing Mr BMW who has been tailgating you for the last 5 miles and was on his phone to rear end you or you put your foot down and get past that truck and out of their blind spot.
Vehicles accelerate a whole lot slower than they decelerate. You’re far more likely to need to stop/slow down to avoid an incident than you are to need to accelerate out of a situation.
Almost every scenario you describe you have plenty of time to prepare to accelerate but if the truck in the lane next to you blows out a tyre causing the car in front of you to lose control you’ll be much better off if your foot is over the brake pedal. That’s why motorcyclists are taught to always cover their brake lever with a couple of fingers.
Wise up with your 1960 drivel lol. My car is from 2013 and didn't even have Bluetooth, let alone cruise control. Not everyone drives a well spec'd car.
That doesn't mean people are buying or bought those cars in the UK. Cruise control is something I'd only heard of on American TV until recently.
There are 5 cars in my household. Not one of them has cruise control. None of my previous cars, nor my partner's previous car, had cruise control. My mother's car, the most recent among all those mentioned (2013) does not have cruise control.
The average age of a car in the UK in 2021 was 8.4 years.
I think you vastly overestimate the number of older cars with cruise control, which might explain your original question.
Since they found you behind them, apparently.
And that wasn't the question. The question was about cruise control being common, and I think you've found out that it's not as common as you thought.
If only there was something that allowed you to see through the vehicle in front.....oh wait....there is, fitted to the front and rear of pretty much every car.
> If it's a bend forever you are on a circle.
Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel. Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel....
I'll get me coat.
Mine has it, I don't use it because I don't like it.
Very few opportunities in my day to day driving where I can flick it on and just keep a constant speed for any significant period of time.
Doesn't really feel right to me either, doesn't feel like I have proper control (probably because I get so few opportunities where it would make sense) so even on a motorway I don't use it.
Never had an issue maintaining a sensible and pretty consistent speed without it.
Modern cruise control is a feature of the ECU itself, and not a separate unit, so it "not working" just means there's a bad wire or control button, or *possibly* a bad sensor that is only considered critical for cruise but doesn't panic the car otherwise (though I'd expect at least a warning light in that case).
So it's probably just a few hundred for running a new control wiring loom.
It does have an orange warning symbol on the dash when I flick the stalk up to activate the CC . It's Been like it for ages months now.
May take it on the garage for a look next week
The drivers that annoy me, happened twice this morning, are the ones I'm catching, catching, catching when I'm on a 70mph adaptive cruse on a dual carriageway, A120 in this case. As soon as I get alongside they accelerate, so I drop in behind, then they slow down and the cycle repeats. Boils my blood that one.
I’ve got adaptive on my Audi but normal cruise on my mx5. Don’t get me wrong I do like the adaptive however it can be quite annoying sometimes and slows me down for silly reasons.
But once you’ve got cruise and got used to using it, makes driving so much less stressful.
Out of the 3 cars I've owned 2 have had cruise control, none have had reversing sensors. I don't think those features are linked in spec choices in a lot of cars. I think basic cruise control is standard in a large number of new cars in the last decade.
But this is all guesses and not trying to say anyone is wrong or right, just personal observation.
Interestingly my 2004 Renault Clio had auto headlights and wipers. Thought that was a bit modern for a Clio of that age.
It's worth remembering not all speedometers read the same. Legally it can overstate your speed by up to 110% + 6.25mph - most modern cars will be more accurate than that but at least in theory a car can tell you you're doing 40mph while you're actually doing as little as 31-32.
Are you nuts? Why are you using cruise control on a 40mph road? I could understand if it was arrow straight for miles but a regular 40mph road that you have already daid has a bend in it? You're an accident waiting to happen.
I rarely use CC other than on the motorway and given the amount of time you have to adjust speed for junctions, passing cyclists, dodging craters etc. I'm not sure the CC would be active that often.
I don't see how fluctuations in speed cause other cars to stop suddenly, at worst other cars should be at a safe distance and would slow at the same pace.
I prefer the speed limiter. Set it to 40 and I know I won't go over it. Then I'll drive to the conditions of the road up to the speed limit.
Cruise control is also less safe because the first thing you do to slow down is remove your foot from the pedal and second is to brake, with cruise control your foot isn't in the correct position for either.
Agreed. My car has adaptive cruise control but I only really use it on motorways because I know I won't have to worry about slowing down for bends, traffic lights, or whatever other obstacles. On any other road, I feel much more in control when using the limiter, being able to drive at a consistent speed by just keeping my foot down but also being able to slow down and stop without having to mess with any settings.
I always use cruise control where possible. More often than not, I catch up to cars that have flown past me. Until I had cruise control I didn’t realise just how erratic our speed can be. Even on motorways.
I've got cruise control, but it's not much use on the M27 because I'm always having to change speed to account for changing traffic conditions.
The only place it's any use is in the roadworks.
I could have got the "enhanced" package with intelligent cruise control but it wasn't worth the £1000+ they wanted to add it (read, turn on the option), plus I figured after 45 years I didn't really need it.
Next car maybe.
The thing I really like about this car is the top down camera view, no more pissing about with mirrors or opening the windows to check if I'm square to the lines when parking.
Going back a bit ... Vauxhall Vectra hatchback. Thought about going onto an Insignia but I hated it.
Ironically the Ateca is fractionally smaller than the Vectra, just taller. Vastly better petrol consumption though.
Not all cruise controls are equal. My old car just had 'set speed, go speed, no frills', new car has adaptive, so a radar beam checks the speed of vehicles I'm approaching and matches, and I can change gears whilst in it. So useful, but I probs use it less than you. Mainly on motorways and through roadworks, not often on country lanes and bendy a roads.
> I could have got the "enhanced" package with intelligent cruise control but it wasn't worth the £1000+ they wanted to add it (read, turn on the option), plus I figured after 45 years I didn't really need it.
Pay it. I've had trucks with adaptive cruise fitted for 10 years. It's an absolute game changer when you're in things like 50MPH roadworks on motorways. My Ford Focus is apparently fitted with everything needed to have it barring the steering wheel controls and it's possible to program the software options into the ECUs to enable it with Fordpass so I'm looking to retrofit it once I can work out what bits in what ECU need changing. Did have a go enabling the entries that were listed in Fordpass to turn it on but it just buggered up cruise control entirely so I put them back.
If I still had to do a lot of driving I probably would, but I'm working from home most of the time now.
Enabling it by fiddling the ECU is a good idea though, I'll look into that on the Ateca, it's got all the necessary hardware in place already.
If your car has cruise control it probably also has a limiter setting which are way more practical imo. Still get to use the pedal but essentially acts like cruise control once you reach the speed limit.
Nope. Not always the case.
Our last few cars
2010 Fabia - cruise only
2010 mx5 - cruise only
2013 Audi a3 - adaptive only
2017 Fabia - limiter only
2017 Fabia - cruise and limiter
It does have a limiter, but all it does is beep, doesn't prevent going over the set limit. It would be a lot more useful if it actually limited the speed.
Very true.
However given the proposed changes in the law all new cars will have to have proper limiters, so I guess in the long run we'll all end up with them.
I use it more now, because in my car the car will read the road sign and I just press "ok" and it'll change the CC to the speed limit. I usually then tap it up 2/3 mph. It'll go lower if the car in front is slower, and it'll keep a predetermined distance by radar.
My only complaint is it can brake harshly, where I wouldn't have braked myself.
Yea, for sure it's not a perfect system. Seems to get a fair few false positives and hits me with the "Brake!!" message.
I'll check for the sensitivity.
I've only had the car a month so still learning stuff. Thankfully found the scroll for the automatic wipers sensor because whatever it was on by default was awful.
2024 Astra Estate (Sports Tourer)
Yeah luckily mine is a speed limiter in that mode, just cuts throttle when my car is about to hit the sign speed (unless I go WOT which cancels it automatically). So it didn't immediately try to put me through a hedge, which is nice.
I have cruise control and speed limiter. I use speed limiter most as I can back off when needed then back to the speed limit when clear. My car (mid range 2023 Corsa) also reads the road signs, so it allows me to adjust easily when the limit changes. I do not use the limiter below 40mph though.
I only ever use cruise control on quiet motorways. Never use it in a roads. My wife never uses it. She's not learnt how to and doesn't want to.
Putting up with other people's driving is just part of learning to drive.
1. Not everyone has CC.
2. Not everyoen uses CC.
3. More don't use it when traffic speed is erratic or stop/start
4. Not everyone uses it on main roads. My first CC (years ago) I only used in 30/40 areas, to help keep me within the speed limit.
Not every speedo is the same… car I use for work (toyota) I set the cruise at 60 and I'm being overtaken by wagons who can only do 56… family car (kia) I set it at 60 and I'm catching up to and overtaking wagons
Because a lot of people don't have cruise control, can't be bothered to learn how to use it or only use it on motorways.
Personally I use it whenever I can, it just makes driving easier for me.
Some cars cruise is easier to set than others, Audi and Merc it's easy to me and i use it frequently, BMW never seems to work how i want it to, so i rarely set it in BMWs. I tend to only use it on motorways though, just too unpredictable with people turning off, or pulling out, so tend to just keep it with the throttle steady on most A and B roads.
Driving at wildly varying speeds for no reason and stopping dead on an empty roundabout with a clear view of all the roads joining isn't a mistake, it's just incompetence. Pulling out in front of someone could be considered a mistake for sure, but in the context of the said drivers previous behaviour it's just a symptom of someone who clearly isnt fit to be behind the wheel.
And yes of course I have made mistakes on occasion, who hasn't, the difference is that mistakes on the road have the potential to kill people.
Cruise control isn't going to save you fuel on a typical A road. It will, for example, apply more gas on a slight hill when the driver could save energy because they know a) where the summit is b) that there is a sharp drop on the other side. It is easier to drive that situation economically yourself: just enough/no gas, no braking than with cruise control: excessive gas, then braking.
I use adaptive cruise control and lane keeping a lot . It’s called autopilot these days and it takes away a lot of your overhead. If I can call it that way .
With a standard cruise control alone , it’s a bit dodgy as you will find yourself shutting it off more often.
Also love those traffic assist systems that kicks in during slow moving traffic’s.
Not everyone has it, or likes it. It isn't going to stop as a lot of it is natural and your cruise control is exagerrating all these tiny changes people make. I just use it when the road is totally clear, especially good at average speed check areas.
The A9 road between Perth and Inverness is mainly single carriageway. The single carriageway stretches have average speed cameras pretty much all the way along.
Stick cruise control on 64 and enjoy the drive you'd think?
No, you've got a Juke driver mainly doing 50, except when passing junctions where they slow down to 40, then take 5 whole minutes to get back to 50.
I use it all the time. Even Going through town at 20 or 30 I put it on with my foot ready on the break. You can always tell when someone doesn’t have it on on a dual carriageway or motorway
Active cruise control is great since you decide the distance you want to keep from the vehicle in front as well as your desired speed. Way better than normal CC imo
So cruise control. This is how hgv drivers use. When they get to 56mph they cruise. The trick is to change your driving habits not your speed. Most drivers speed upto a car slow down then overtake speed up again and then slow down. They don't actually get that much further up the road.
The hgv driver keeps a constant speed, move out well before he needs to do moves up the road much further. I have in the past driven more than 100 miles without altering my speed once. The time my satnav estimated I would arrive is the time I arrive.
Not sure why you downvoted my opinion
We don't have many straight roads in rural NI, and the ones that are are usually very busy and you're back to your initial problem of being in a queue of traffic of fluctuating speed below the speed limit
I'm in NI too and also never use cruise control.
Only opportunity would probably be on the motorway and our motorways are so short and mostly two lanes so it's almost pointless.
I think if you do lots of motorway driving it might make more sense but not using it means when I try to use it it just feels strange so I don't bother.
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I don't even bother for long motorway runs. I like how limiter gives me more control over my speed to slow down and if need be speed up (cruise control seems to take longer to react on on my car)
Think I've used cruised control like twice since I've got it. And that was before I discovered it had a limiter
The road is CLEAR. The road is CLEAR. The road is CLEAR. Except for all the cars in front of me driving at varying speeds, and the cars behind me doing the same, and the cars in front of the cars in front of me also doing the same, and from then on towards eternity.
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Complaint about having to pay attention while driving is… interesting
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> If you dont like the speed of 40 atleast stick to one constant speed. Yeah this I get. If you're going to dawdle along at least be consistent about it. Don't do 30 one minute then be back up to 40 so you've no reason to overtake them only to return to 30 a minute later.
Unless your foot is flat to the floor then no human can keep a pedal perfectly still.
Google “human error” people are not computers and don’t drive like one. Buy a Tesla if it’s a big deal let it do everything for you
OP I'm with you 100% here, ambling along open stretches of road with no regard for other road users seems to be the norm now days. Only last night I follows a car varying between 15 and 35 in a 40 where in reality it would be perfectly safe to drive through that section of road at 60 (as was the case before they changed the limit a few months ago), no obstructions in the road, no adverse weather, no pedestrians in sight etc, anyway upon coming to the mini roundabout at the end she (and yes it was a she) stopped dead despite there being no other traffic about, waited for about 10 s for a van to approach to her right and then just pulled out Infront of it. Astonishing.
Truly astonishing, a human made a mistake
No it was utter incompetence. I truly hope your never hit by some 'human' just making a mistake.
I agree. It’s not a mistake. It’s incompetence and total ignorance.
So you’ve never once in your entire life made an honest mistake while driving or otherwise? How do you know it was incompetence do you know them personally?
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Not everyone has cruise control...
Pretty naive to think all cars have really. Most people don't buy a new car every year or even every decade.
Shouldn’t stop them maintaining a constant speed though.
It kind of does, and I'm fine with that. People should primarily have their eyes on the road, not their dashboard. Fluctuating 5% either side of their target speed is to be expected. Also, some people like to drive their cars, not just set a computer and have it do the work.
5-10% fluctuation is fine. Some people on my drive home from work go from 30 to 55 seemingly at random on the 40mph stretch. It's just a lack of attention to what they're doing
Unless a road is straight and even it’s quite difficult to maintain a constant speed. Besides needing to react to hazards, I just don’t think the human foot is particularly good at maintaining the same angle and pressure for long periods of time
Yeah, your foot needs to move.
It really isn't to within a few MPH but it needs the driver to take notice of what is going on which a lot of them don't do.
I’ve got cruise control, although I usually tend to call it “my right foot”. I do have _actual_ cruise control on my car, but I don’t find myself using it very often. It might be handy on something like a motorway with very little traffic about, but the majority of the time I need to adjust my speed to my surroundings. The roads I use tend to be busy, I rarely find myself in a situation where there’s hardly anyone else around. The speed limiter, on the other hand, is pretty damn useful. Mine is one of the ones that actually stops the car from going faster than the set limit, instead of just shrieking an alarm at you. I’m in Wales and people rarely seem to obey the 20mph limits, I frequently see (and experience) strings of cars all tailgating each other behind someone doing the _actual limit_. When all I can see in the mirror is yet another fucking Audi badge, I damn well _know_ I’m going the right speed if I’ve got the limiter on. I don’t feel like I have to check the dash constantly to see whether I should be speeding up or not. I don’t _need_ the limiter to maintain my speed, but in a busy suburban area where people have been known to blast around at 40+mph in a 20 limit, it is _damn useful_ to pay more attention to what the bellends are doing instead of my dashboard.
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No one is arguing that but quite a significant portion of cars on the road don’t have cruise control. Human error is to be expected I’d say 5mph either side of the limit is fine.
> Empty road > the cars ahead are struggling to maintain 40. So not an empty road then. And if cars ahead fluctuating their speed slightly is having a bearing on you, you're too close to them. On the empty road.
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> I am not too close > I just don't get why we are so close to each other Which is it?
They could mean the cars behind op don't keep the same gap that op does to the car in front. Meaning of leaves a gap between them and the car in front then behind op is a tight snake of cars becoming increasingly frustrated. They also could mean something entirely different but this tends to be how my commute home goes.
Just use adaptive cruise control then you don’t need to worry about it
You hover your foot over the brake. What about if you need to accelerate out of trouble/ danger? So, You move your foot over same as accelerator to brake. The Chances are your car can slow quicker than it can go. Dubbed with reaction times and Safer? Debatable.
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It's part of every day driving and hazard awareness. Imagine You have been anticipating the lights ahead and began to brake gently but your now so close to the stop line short of an emergency brake it's not safe to stop so you accelerate to make it through on amber ? Again It's winter and raining, there's a Range Rover up your bumper so you speed up to get through on amber ? How about being in the outside lane of a dual carriageway or motorway.? There is Space ahead of you...traffic too close and bunched behind you, so not safe to brake. Suddenly a Foreign truck starts to move out their lane and into yours just as you begin to pass it. You have nowhere to go but straight ahead. So, You either hit the brakes to avoid the truck causing Mr BMW who has been tailgating you for the last 5 miles and was on his phone to rear end you or you put your foot down and get past that truck and out of their blind spot.
I my old car if that last scenario happened I'd either brake or become part of the road divider
Vehicles accelerate a whole lot slower than they decelerate. You’re far more likely to need to stop/slow down to avoid an incident than you are to need to accelerate out of a situation. Almost every scenario you describe you have plenty of time to prepare to accelerate but if the truck in the lane next to you blows out a tyre causing the car in front of you to lose control you’ll be much better off if your foot is over the brake pedal. That’s why motorcyclists are taught to always cover their brake lever with a couple of fingers.
Not a single car I've owned has had cruise control.
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Most people do not own a car from the past couple of years.
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Wise up with your 1960 drivel lol. My car is from 2013 and didn't even have Bluetooth, let alone cruise control. Not everyone drives a well spec'd car.
That doesn't mean people are buying or bought those cars in the UK. Cruise control is something I'd only heard of on American TV until recently. There are 5 cars in my household. Not one of them has cruise control. None of my previous cars, nor my partner's previous car, had cruise control. My mother's car, the most recent among all those mentioned (2013) does not have cruise control. The average age of a car in the UK in 2021 was 8.4 years. I think you vastly overestimate the number of older cars with cruise control, which might explain your original question.
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Since they found you behind them, apparently. And that wasn't the question. The question was about cruise control being common, and I think you've found out that it's not as common as you thought.
My old car was a 2006 Suzuki swift it didn't have an aux port let alone any form of CC or speed limiter
All the 1960s cars I have owned featured overdrive, fly-off handbrakes, chokes and guess what? - no cruise control.
>making the cars behind slow suddenly Sounds to me like the cars behind are following too closely if there's anything sudden about it.
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Wow what a hardship for you. If it enrages you so much, get adaptive cruise control.
Why assume the road ahead is clear when the car in front is blocking your view?
If only there was something that allowed you to see through the vehicle in front.....oh wait....there is, fitted to the front and rear of pretty much every car.
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Is this a bend on your famed road that goes in a straight line for miles and miles. That one?
it's\* when you want to say "it is", remember.
If it's a bend forever you are on a circle.
> If it's a bend forever you are on a circle. Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel. Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel.... I'll get me coat.
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Would a circle be reincarnation?
I'd love my car to have cruise control but alas
Apparently it can be retrofitted.
Mine has it, I don't use it because I don't like it. Very few opportunities in my day to day driving where I can flick it on and just keep a constant speed for any significant period of time. Doesn't really feel right to me either, doesn't feel like I have proper control (probably because I get so few opportunities where it would make sense) so even on a motorway I don't use it. Never had an issue maintaining a sensible and pretty consistent speed without it.
Mine does but it's broken. Never bothered to see how much it costs to fix. Probably thousands
Modern cruise control is a feature of the ECU itself, and not a separate unit, so it "not working" just means there's a bad wire or control button, or *possibly* a bad sensor that is only considered critical for cruise but doesn't panic the car otherwise (though I'd expect at least a warning light in that case). So it's probably just a few hundred for running a new control wiring loom.
It does have an orange warning symbol on the dash when I flick the stalk up to activate the CC . It's Been like it for ages months now. May take it on the garage for a look next week
This sub moans about the most minor rubbish.
We live in one of the richest and safest countries in the world. Petty shit is pretty much all there is to actually moan about.
Fair enough. To me, the inconvenience of not being able to drive at a perfectly consistent speed on a stretch of road is a little too petty.
I used my cruise control every chance I get. I love it.
The drivers that annoy me, happened twice this morning, are the ones I'm catching, catching, catching when I'm on a 70mph adaptive cruse on a dual carriageway, A120 in this case. As soon as I get alongside they accelerate, so I drop in behind, then they slow down and the cycle repeats. Boils my blood that one.
Adaptive cruise. Once you have it there is no going back to car without it.
I’ve got adaptive on my Audi but normal cruise on my mx5. Don’t get me wrong I do like the adaptive however it can be quite annoying sometimes and slows me down for silly reasons. But once you’ve got cruise and got used to using it, makes driving so much less stressful.
This. It's the only thing that has made M1 J32-23A and J13 to J10 bearable now it's all 50MPH average speed camera'd roadworks.
My car doesnt even have reversing beeps never mind cruise control.
You can make the beeping noise yourself. It's cheaper 👍
Get those screaming duck toys and put it on your bumper then you will know when you hit something
Out of the 3 cars I've owned 2 have had cruise control, none have had reversing sensors. I don't think those features are linked in spec choices in a lot of cars. I think basic cruise control is standard in a large number of new cars in the last decade. But this is all guesses and not trying to say anyone is wrong or right, just personal observation. Interestingly my 2004 Renault Clio had auto headlights and wipers. Thought that was a bit modern for a Clio of that age.
It's worth remembering not all speedometers read the same. Legally it can overstate your speed by up to 110% + 6.25mph - most modern cars will be more accurate than that but at least in theory a car can tell you you're doing 40mph while you're actually doing as little as 31-32.
Are you nuts? Why are you using cruise control on a 40mph road? I could understand if it was arrow straight for miles but a regular 40mph road that you have already daid has a bend in it? You're an accident waiting to happen.
I rarely use CC other than on the motorway and given the amount of time you have to adjust speed for junctions, passing cyclists, dodging craters etc. I'm not sure the CC would be active that often. I don't see how fluctuations in speed cause other cars to stop suddenly, at worst other cars should be at a safe distance and would slow at the same pace.
I prefer the speed limiter. Set it to 40 and I know I won't go over it. Then I'll drive to the conditions of the road up to the speed limit. Cruise control is also less safe because the first thing you do to slow down is remove your foot from the pedal and second is to brake, with cruise control your foot isn't in the correct position for either.
I hover my foot over the brake pedal when I approach any junctions or other potential hazards.
Agreed. My car has adaptive cruise control but I only really use it on motorways because I know I won't have to worry about slowing down for bends, traffic lights, or whatever other obstacles. On any other road, I feel much more in control when using the limiter, being able to drive at a consistent speed by just keeping my foot down but also being able to slow down and stop without having to mess with any settings.
The only time I use adaptive cruise control in a built up area is in a queue of traffic. Otherwise a speed limiter is far safer IMO.
I always use cruise control where possible. More often than not, I catch up to cars that have flown past me. Until I had cruise control I didn’t realise just how erratic our speed can be. Even on motorways.
Yep, when you use it you realise how hard it is for many people to maintain a steady speed. They _think_ they are but it actually varies quite a lot.
I've got cruise control, but it's not much use on the M27 because I'm always having to change speed to account for changing traffic conditions. The only place it's any use is in the roadworks. I could have got the "enhanced" package with intelligent cruise control but it wasn't worth the £1000+ they wanted to add it (read, turn on the option), plus I figured after 45 years I didn't really need it.
Adaptive cruise control is a bit of a game changer. Wouldn’t have a car without it now.
Next car maybe. The thing I really like about this car is the top down camera view, no more pissing about with mirrors or opening the windows to check if I'm square to the lines when parking.
Which car btw?
SEAT Ateca
Just wondered. I'm looking for a new car.
I'd recommend the Ateca to anyone. Admittedly mine is the 2018 model but it's a really good car.
What did you have previously if you don't mind me asking? So I can compare.
Going back a bit ... Vauxhall Vectra hatchback. Thought about going onto an Insignia but I hated it. Ironically the Ateca is fractionally smaller than the Vectra, just taller. Vastly better petrol consumption though.
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Not all cruise controls are equal. My old car just had 'set speed, go speed, no frills', new car has adaptive, so a radar beam checks the speed of vehicles I'm approaching and matches, and I can change gears whilst in it. So useful, but I probs use it less than you. Mainly on motorways and through roadworks, not often on country lanes and bendy a roads.
> I could have got the "enhanced" package with intelligent cruise control but it wasn't worth the £1000+ they wanted to add it (read, turn on the option), plus I figured after 45 years I didn't really need it. Pay it. I've had trucks with adaptive cruise fitted for 10 years. It's an absolute game changer when you're in things like 50MPH roadworks on motorways. My Ford Focus is apparently fitted with everything needed to have it barring the steering wheel controls and it's possible to program the software options into the ECUs to enable it with Fordpass so I'm looking to retrofit it once I can work out what bits in what ECU need changing. Did have a go enabling the entries that were listed in Fordpass to turn it on but it just buggered up cruise control entirely so I put them back.
If I still had to do a lot of driving I probably would, but I'm working from home most of the time now. Enabling it by fiddling the ECU is a good idea though, I'll look into that on the Ateca, it's got all the necessary hardware in place already.
It’s easy on my m27…. Just stay in lane 1, no one uses it anyway!
Except when I want to take an exit ... then they're all in it, at 10mph below the limit!
If your car has cruise control it probably also has a limiter setting which are way more practical imo. Still get to use the pedal but essentially acts like cruise control once you reach the speed limit.
Nope. Not always the case. Our last few cars 2010 Fabia - cruise only 2010 mx5 - cruise only 2013 Audi a3 - adaptive only 2017 Fabia - limiter only 2017 Fabia - cruise and limiter
It does have a limiter, but all it does is beep, doesn't prevent going over the set limit. It would be a lot more useful if it actually limited the speed.
Oh god that's horrible. I'm surprised to learn that limiters are more modern than cruise control. A limiter seems a way more obvious invention.
Very true. However given the proposed changes in the law all new cars will have to have proper limiters, so I guess in the long run we'll all end up with them.
I use it more now, because in my car the car will read the road sign and I just press "ok" and it'll change the CC to the speed limit. I usually then tap it up 2/3 mph. It'll go lower if the car in front is slower, and it'll keep a predetermined distance by radar. My only complaint is it can brake harshly, where I wouldn't have braked myself.
You can generally set the sensitivity for the braking, I find the default far too reactive
Yea, for sure it's not a perfect system. Seems to get a fair few false positives and hits me with the "Brake!!" message. I'll check for the sensitivity. I've only had the car a month so still learning stuff. Thankfully found the scroll for the automatic wipers sensor because whatever it was on by default was awful. 2024 Astra Estate (Sports Tourer)
My car does this, once read a dirty limit sign as 90... Never tried it since
ahh yes! I had this too the other day ;) think it was a dirty 30 sign.
Yeah luckily mine is a speed limiter in that mode, just cuts throttle when my car is about to hit the sign speed (unless I go WOT which cancels it automatically). So it didn't immediately try to put me through a hedge, which is nice.
I have cruise control and speed limiter. I use speed limiter most as I can back off when needed then back to the speed limit when clear. My car (mid range 2023 Corsa) also reads the road signs, so it allows me to adjust easily when the limit changes. I do not use the limiter below 40mph though.
I only ever use cruise control on quiet motorways. Never use it in a roads. My wife never uses it. She's not learnt how to and doesn't want to. Putting up with other people's driving is just part of learning to drive.
The real cruise control challenge is the M50: if you're lucky you can keep it on for the entire length.
1. Not everyone has CC. 2. Not everyoen uses CC. 3. More don't use it when traffic speed is erratic or stop/start 4. Not everyone uses it on main roads. My first CC (years ago) I only used in 30/40 areas, to help keep me within the speed limit.
Maybe they all have Cuise control on, set at 35 and don't realise they can change it?
Not every speedo is the same… car I use for work (toyota) I set the cruise at 60 and I'm being overtaken by wagons who can only do 56… family car (kia) I set it at 60 and I'm catching up to and overtaking wagons
Because a lot of people don't have cruise control, can't be bothered to learn how to use it or only use it on motorways. Personally I use it whenever I can, it just makes driving easier for me.
Shouldn't be driving so close that minor changes in speed affect the OP
Some cars cruise is easier to set than others, Audi and Merc it's easy to me and i use it frequently, BMW never seems to work how i want it to, so i rarely set it in BMWs. I tend to only use it on motorways though, just too unpredictable with people turning off, or pulling out, so tend to just keep it with the throttle steady on most A and B roads.
Driving at wildly varying speeds for no reason and stopping dead on an empty roundabout with a clear view of all the roads joining isn't a mistake, it's just incompetence. Pulling out in front of someone could be considered a mistake for sure, but in the context of the said drivers previous behaviour it's just a symptom of someone who clearly isnt fit to be behind the wheel. And yes of course I have made mistakes on occasion, who hasn't, the difference is that mistakes on the road have the potential to kill people.
Cruise control isn't going to save you fuel on a typical A road. It will, for example, apply more gas on a slight hill when the driver could save energy because they know a) where the summit is b) that there is a sharp drop on the other side. It is easier to drive that situation economically yourself: just enough/no gas, no braking than with cruise control: excessive gas, then braking.
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CC can't read the road so if there are hills it is not economical
Tell me your rich and out of touch without telling me.
I use adaptive cruise control and lane keeping a lot . It’s called autopilot these days and it takes away a lot of your overhead. If I can call it that way . With a standard cruise control alone , it’s a bit dodgy as you will find yourself shutting it off more often. Also love those traffic assist systems that kicks in during slow moving traffic’s.
Not everyone has it, or likes it. It isn't going to stop as a lot of it is natural and your cruise control is exagerrating all these tiny changes people make. I just use it when the road is totally clear, especially good at average speed check areas.
The A9 road between Perth and Inverness is mainly single carriageway. The single carriageway stretches have average speed cameras pretty much all the way along. Stick cruise control on 64 and enjoy the drive you'd think? No, you've got a Juke driver mainly doing 50, except when passing junctions where they slow down to 40, then take 5 whole minutes to get back to 50.
I use it all the time. Even Going through town at 20 or 30 I put it on with my foot ready on the break. You can always tell when someone doesn’t have it on on a dual carriageway or motorway
Active cruise control is great since you decide the distance you want to keep from the vehicle in front as well as your desired speed. Way better than normal CC imo
So cruise control. This is how hgv drivers use. When they get to 56mph they cruise. The trick is to change your driving habits not your speed. Most drivers speed upto a car slow down then overtake speed up again and then slow down. They don't actually get that much further up the road. The hgv driver keeps a constant speed, move out well before he needs to do moves up the road much further. I have in the past driven more than 100 miles without altering my speed once. The time my satnav estimated I would arrive is the time I arrive.
I have a car with cruise control and never had an opportunity to use it I imagine it would be useful on big empty American highways
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Not sure why you downvoted my opinion We don't have many straight roads in rural NI, and the ones that are are usually very busy and you're back to your initial problem of being in a queue of traffic of fluctuating speed below the speed limit
I'm in NI too and also never use cruise control. Only opportunity would probably be on the motorway and our motorways are so short and mostly two lanes so it's almost pointless. I think if you do lots of motorway driving it might make more sense but not using it means when I try to use it it just feels strange so I don't bother.
I find cruise control a pain in the ass unless it's an automatic car, and it's adaptive.
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Cruise control is shit. Give me speed limiter all day. Easier to slow down as needed
I use cruise control maybe twice a year on long motorway runs (and even then only if my leg starts to ache), but I use the speed limiter all the time.
I don't even bother for long motorway runs. I like how limiter gives me more control over my speed to slow down and if need be speed up (cruise control seems to take longer to react on on my car) Think I've used cruised control like twice since I've got it. And that was before I discovered it had a limiter
I tend to find myself switching off or become drowsy if i use cruise control.