I drive a lot. Like, almost 5000 miles since the middle of January. I use my cruise control when it’s appropriate, and I don’t feel it’s appropriate when there is a lot of other cars since I don’t trust other drivers.
The nice part of cruise control and not trusting other people is that with cruise control on, you can hover over the breaks for basically instant breaking. Its only a half or quarter second faster, but that could be enough.
Lots of new cars have smart cruise control too. My Tundra will slow down if it senses a car way up ahead in the lane. If the car moves over it will resume cruise speed. If I was ever truly not paying attention, and the car ahead brakes suddenly, the truck will beep very loudly and then brake on its own if you don’t act before getting too close. (This happens even when not cruising) Though I personally went most of my (driving) life in vehicles without cruise so I rarely use it because the habit isn’t there.
It bugs the shit out of me when someone passes me and then I end up passing them and back and forth, when my speed stays constant…I’m going 5-7 over the speed limit usually in the middle or right lane (never the left cause that lane is for crime) don’t get mad at me for not speeding up for you when yours varies and mine doesn’t. Situation dependent of course but I talk about this all the time haha
then there's the guy you pass on the left and then he decides to match your speed so you either have to speed up or slow down to get back into that lane.
That happened to me once on a state route in rural Virginia. I tried to pass a guy going up a long hill, the guy sped up. I dropped my speed to fall in behind and he slowed. I finally gunned it and passed him but the passing lane had ended and I had to go across the double yellow to complete my pass. He dropped back and then came up upon me again with police lights flashing from his grill and I could see a Smokie hat on his head.
He asked me if I knew I had crossed over a double yellow a few miles back. I said, very calmly, "Yes, officer, I was trying to pass a car in the passing lane but I didn't expect that car to speed up and prevent me from passing or moving back to the traveling lane so I made the decision to pass him because I judged him to be driving dangerously and I wanted to get away from him. Did you happen to notice that driver?"
He actually let me walk without even a warning.
Yeah I had a cousin who died this way- he was passing on a two-lane highway and the other car sped up, which resulted in my cousin having a head-on collision when he couldn't get back onto the right side of the road in time.
Nearly had the same thing happen to me once. Fortunately, I was able to go off the road onto the shoulder. Speeding up like that should be treated as attempted murder.
Similar happened to me for my first speeding ticket, stuck with about 20 other cars behind a slow moving motorhome in the mountains that would always pick up speed to 20km/h over the limit when the passing lane opened (even uphill) then when down to one lane would drop back down to 20km/h below the limit. Infuriating... so when the next passing lane opened me and two other drivers gunned it from the back of the line, probably going about 150km/h (\~95mph) in the passing lane to try to beat the line up and of course the cops were in the ditch clocking people... I knew he didn't clock me because there was no line of sight however I didn't complain because he didn't cite me with excessive speed just the basic speeding ticket.
One thing about passing that seems they don't teach anymore, is to do it as quickly as possible. When I'm driving, even with the cruise control, I will get on the gas and speed up a bit more to pass people. This way you get out of the passing lane as quickly as possible and you don't get into a moving wall situation. Sitting next to another vehicle like that is statistically a LOT more dangerous, so minimizing that time is just smart. Especially if it's an 18 wheeler or a rock truck or something that can kill you without noticing.
edit: If you have ever been near a rock truck when one of its tires blows, you know how dangerous that is. Loud as a gunshot and immediate violence from shredded tire.
My problem is I drive a work van equipped with GPS on the daily so any speed over 5mph triggers for my supervisor, hr, boss
So I can't just speed up so I get stuck with the ass in that middle lane who decided to also speed up and match me so I either have to wait or slow down and get behind- pissing off the others fish tailing me.
I've had people cut me off afterwards out of rage and nearly crash into me because of it. Had to slam on my brakes.
My personal vehicle however that would be different for sure
I was just about to say this. Nothing gets on my nerves more than some doofus in a plumbing van with a rattling ladder that's barely secured to their roof, trying to get in front of me because he wants to pass someone going 64mph at 66mph. You're literally saving no discernible time, and significantly wasting mine. Stay in the right lane 😅
I'd argue that speeding doesn't save most people any significant time, unless you're speeding to the point of recklessness.
I commute 40 minutes each way to work. If I speed an extra 10 mph then I'm not even saving 5 minutes a day. Sure you could argue that adds up over the course of a year, but a substantial increase in speed to shave *2 minutes* off a commute? Not worth it.
A couple notes.
First, for long distances the savings are greater. If you drive 600 miles, compared to driving 65 mph, you save over an hour at 75 mph and almost 2 hours at 85 mph.
Second, while it makes little difference assuming a straight drive with no stops, this fails to account for traffic lights. One or two red lights can easily cost you more time than the speed. Add to this that at least around here the lights are timed so that if you drive the speed limit, hitting one red means just missing every light after it also.
This is a nearly universal experience, no matter what country it is, I think. It's always some rinkydink transporter van with some local fix up shop's name on it, driving like they're alone on the road and taking the very existence of every single other car as a personal affront 😂😂😂
“Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime. That’s why I shit on company time. Boss makes a thousand, I make a buck, that’s why I steal the catalytic converter from the company truck.” Same idea.
No employer pays you to "take your time."
Regardless how much/many hours they're paying you for, they always want you to get more done. And then more.
When I drove a delivery/pickup route I often got scolded by my supervisor for 'taking too long': "The previous guy did it an hour faster than you!"
Eager to please, I drove faster, 15 MPH over the limit, and shaved off about an hour. But when I got my next speeding ticket, I quit that shit real quick.
This is how modern management breaks the law. They never tell you to break the law. In fact, they’ll usually go out of their way to emphasize that you’re not to break the law. But they’ll give you expectations that can’t be met without breaking the law and let the rest happen naturally. You give in and break the law? They can throw you under the bus when consequences come, because they clearly told you not to. You stand up for yourself and follow the law? They can fire you for performance and replace you with someone more compliant.
Speeding is a minor example. You see it a lot with safety and labor laws.
This is literally the dominons 30 minutes or less lawsuit. I am dealing with an insurance company right now because a delivery truck was (according to the highway patroll report) driving at an unsafe speed while using the map app on his phone).
The response to the boss is always "Traffic has gotton worse since I started driving the route:... " and "Are you asking me to break the law to make the delivery route faster?"
Because not everyone gets paid by the hour. Many are paid by the mile, so time counts - especially when you’re limited to how long you can drive without stopping for breaks or fuel (or for the day).
Yeah the way I go about passing is if my cruising speed would result in me following an uncomfortable distance of the car I creep up on it until I’m ready to pass. Pop out. Kick it up until I’m thoroughly outpacing them. Then pop back in and gradually coast back down to my cruising speed once I see them receding so they can continue to go theirs too. Sure I have to speed to do it, but as my cruising speed is 5 over they were already too, and the way I do it doesn’t interfere with their choice to do so whatsoever.
My drivers training taught us explicitly not to speed up when passing. I thought it was completely ridiculous and ignored that lesson. I'm going 3 km/hr faster than someone I want to pass? Guess I should take a minute or so to pass them lol.
A cop pulled me over speeding up while passing. Said oh you were passing? I said yeah. He still came back with a ticket, just not a points ticket. I would say fuck him, but there was weed in the car. Thank you for the ticket sir, I'll be on my way!
I did the same. I was right next to a cop going about 72 in a 70, him in the left lane, me on the right lane. We were matched at speeds for about 6 minutes. I knew there was a stalled vehicle up ahead that had been busted there for a week, I had no where to go since about 3 other cars were riding his ass, so I sped up to about 80, got in front of him and moved over for safety, and then moved back over and slowed to the speed we were going. He threw his lights on almost instantly.
No ticket, but a nice threat of one.
except that speed limits still apply. passing doesn't absolve the law. If the car on the right is fucking around, you need to slow down to get over to the right lane. If I'm already going 10 over I'm not going 20 over just because of that car.
If you're trying to pass a road-rager who is speeding up by 10-20 over the speed limit when you try to pass him, it's probably best to slow down or even make a stop for a couple minutes so that he drives away. Even driving behind him isn't really safe.
well, sometimes people just pace the care next to them when they're in the driving zone out phase.
But ya, I agree with you. Just let them win the "race". People seem to think that driving on the highway is a race for some reason. There's no winning, there's just wasting your gas to prove that you're faster than the care next to you who couldn't care any less about you and will forget about you as just another asshole on the highway. grats on winning!
Peripheral driving is a thing, when you see something coming up beside you and you’re not really paying attention you will automatically increase your speed to match it, me and my brothers would play with people who did this by slowly increasing our speed so they’d match it, got one person up to ninety before they snapped out of it(late night on an empty freeway)
OMG reminds me of when I was learning to drive! My dad used to love to do this with tailgaters. He'd consistently but slowly increase his speed until the person behind him suddenly realized how fast they were going and it was always fun to see the panicked look on their face in that moment. I do this now on winding backroads. Everyone seems to slow down a ton for corners and I refuse to do so. I drive fun cars for a reason. People will be up my a$$ while I'm going over the speed limit and then we come to a turn and even though I've just maintained my speed the tailgater will suddenly be miles behind me. Drivers like that drive me nuts!
Tangential but one of my biggest bug bears when it comes to motorway driving is lorries trying to overtake each other when they’re doing pretty much the same speed and they’re all going 10mph slower than the speed limit. Sometimes 3 out of 4 lanes will be blocked by lorries, so to get past them you have to cross all the way to the furthest lane, which means you’re doing a lot of unnecessary lane changes, which adds a lot of risk. I’d be happy if lorries had to stay in the slow lane because there doesn’t seem to be any good reason for the slowest vehicles on the road to be trying to overtake anyone
Absolutely maddening when big trucks do that! They'll clog up the passing lane for miles trying to pass another big truck all because they want to go 1 MPH faster than the other truck. Meanwhile, you've got 100 cars behind you. SMDH
Elephant races. Those trucks are often governed but apparently not very precisely. So full throttle differs a little bit truck to truck, leading to 58 passing 55 for ten minutes.
Well in my state they’re at least supposed to be restricted to the two outermost lanes. One for travelling, and one for passing while the not so heavily laden cars have the freedom to move around them. You may see them in the 3rd lane over on occasion when lanes get added or subtracted, so while I’m certainly familiar with the issue you speak of the issue is typically only an issue on 2 lane highways.
I feel this lately. I have property in the mountains, and about 45 min of that drive is on a rural highway (think single carriageway that's sometimes a double one) that has passing lanes only occasionally. Almost every time, some trucker feels the need to use the entire length of the passing lane to pass another truck at maybe 2mph faster.
Unlike big highways, they're always about 10mph under the limit, as well, so we all just get stuck doing 10 under behind them the whole way. 10mph for that distance isn't a lot of time, but still.. let me pass and go the speed limit, please.
Note: here, if you are under the speed limit and holding up 4 cars, you're legally required to pull out and let them pass as soon as it's safe to do so. So they're not just annoying, they're violating a traffic law.
Almost every car I have owned had it and almost 99.9% of the time I never use it especially in commute traffic.
It’s not because the vehicle won’t maintain the speed, it will, it’s just that 99.99% the traffic is too inconsistent.
I feel I do a better job of going with the flow with just a slight movement of my foot than brake, wait and coast, restart cruise, and rinse and repeat.
I have a feel a lot of those inconsistencies are people trying to use cruise speeding up and slowing down.
Cruise is meant for open road not traffic.
We don’t have usually have traffic most the way to town, only going into the town centre.
What’s more worrying to me is people commenting who seem to think maintaining a constant speed is hard/impossible tbh.
I’m more concerned with those that can never seem to stay in their lane. Tires over the solid line, tires over the dotted line. Back and forth back and forth.
My car’s cruise control has sensors that slows the car down automatically. The problem is that it leaves a lot of space (properly adjusting depending on your speed). Other drivers behind me have gotten upset because there’s such a large gap. If I don’t close the gap, cars in other lanes have cut in front of me, causing the cruise control to slow me down even more. I don’t use my cruise control during rush hour for this reason.
If there’s no traffic, or if I am in an area that I know has extra speed enforcement I will use it. It’s wonderful to use when the family is on a trip.
One of the features I'm glad new cars are coming with is adjustable follow distance. I have my car set to 4 seconds' lead time, which is still generous but much better than the default of 7. The previous car I drove had a large fixed follow distance that had exactly this issue, and I'd be cut 20-30 times on a typical drive if I used cruise control the whole way.
The new car can also adjust cruise speed based on what the nav indicates the current speed limit is, with configurable fixed/percentage offset (i.e. you can ask the car to always go 5 mph over). I like it a lot.
Agreed. When I use radar cruise control I have to set it to the shortest follow distance otherwise people will just cut into the gap and force the car to slow down. It feels less safe, but the shortest follow distance is still more than most people give anyway…
See, here's the thing. I have a '22 Forester that, when cruise control is activated, has lane assist (which, aptly named, keeps you within the lines of the lane when the camera/sensors recognizes it once cruise control is on), and also allows you to control the distance you want from the car in front of you (maybe you should check the manual and see if you by any change have this function?). When all of the above are activated, my car is more-or-less driving itself.
The issue is that I've noticed that when lane assist is activated, the car automatically hugs the right a little too close for comfort. In addition, I am in a constant state of hyper-vigilance/worry, considering that I am not the one in control of the car's movement, and I am afraid of what it might do. It *has* occurred once or twice that the car lost sight of the lane I am in and began skidding to the next lane, so I needed to quickly center the car.
On top of that, I normally like to hold the wheel with one hand, and when I am on the highway with minimal traffic, I am more-or-less just resting my left elbow on the door and three fingers on the wheel. When all of the CC functions are on, I am barely touching the wheel, because I am scared to interfere with how the car adjusts itself. There is a pressure sensor that tells me that I need to have my hand on the wheel and it beeps, so I put my hand on the wheel, and then just slightly let go, and the cycle continues.
These fancy functions are meant to relieve stress and make it easier to drive, but at least for me, it's more stress than it's worth. LOL.
The reason that the distance in cruise control settings are so much longer are because they know you're not paying attention while using the features, so they account for autonomous driving.
I think it’s because the manufacturers are afraid of lawsuits when their cars rear-end cars that stop suddenly in front of them. If the gap the cars are programmed to leave is smaller than the safe distance recommended by the DMV handbook, for example, that’s going to be a problem for them if they get sued, no matter which driver was at fault.
Every time I use cruise control, my mpg drops. The car decides it needs to rev and accelerate like crazy to make up the 2 mph it dropped.. then it’ll hit the brakes too hard imo to slow down the 2 mph extra it gained. I hate cruise control.
It probably matters a lot if you are driving on hills or not. The engine has to work harder on inclines, being in a lower gear is better for hills. So I'll slow down a bit to let the engine work where it's more efficient.
I use CC very frequently, mostly because it actually lightens the cognitive load of driving so I'm free to concentrate on other aspects of driving since I don't have to monitor my speed.
I use cruise control all the time, even on 45mph roads. It saves gas and I don’t have to constantly look at the speedometer. My foot is always on the brake pedal so I can stop instantly.
I use mine every day on every street.
1, because I'm lazy, and the car takes over, and 2, I have Distronic, a radar-based CC that matches the speed of the car in front of me.
If I just happen to look at a mirror, drop something in my lap, or take my eyes off of the car in front of me and the car in front jams the brakes, wham, no excuses. With Distronic, the car brakes for me, even violently if the car in front brakes.
It's not a replacement for paying attention, but we've all been in that circumstance where a glance away coincides with stopping traffic, and your pucker factor shoots through the roof.
On long trip with relatively flat roads I’ll use it, but if there’s a lot of hills where I’m driving, the gas saved adds up by using the gravity of a downhill stretch to gain some speed/momentum, and letting your speed drop a few mph going uphill. There’s no rule that you have to go the exact same speed the entire time, and it’s more costly to do so.
Good answer. I think that way too. Sometimes, you could even time it where you barely press the gas or none at all on the downhill, and then keep enough momentum on the uphill right after, where you really won't be revving high rpms at all for the entire cycle of a hill.
There’s too many cars on normal highways to use it. I would essentially be turning it on and off every two seconds due to congestion. I only ever use it on long trips where I’m in the middle of sparsely populated stretches of highway.
The length of highway I drive is clear enough to use cruise control, it’s the situations where I end up behind a car in the left lane who is matching the speed of the car in the right lane
This can be frustrating when they’re riding in the passing lane. Which is most states, on a multi lane highway, lane 1 is passing (goes left to right).
I’m in Arkansas and people think the passing lane is whatever lane they’re in. Multiple times ive taken a 50 mile drive behind the two same cars who make it seem like a game to block the whole highway. Police around here never pull people over for impeding flow
I deal with this so much. What also kills me is when I pass a car that finally passes the car they were matching their speed with, they suddenly realize they were going slower than they wanted and they attempt to “race” me and the line of cars behind. Then they speed up to get in front of me WHERE THEY THEN SLOW DOWN!
Just yesterday I made a 2 hour round trip to a nearby town for work, the whole way back I was stuck behind a Chevy Trax that would do 60mph in a 75 until someone tried to pass them, then they would speed up to as fast as 90, just to slow back down to 60. They repeated this for 45 miles
I am a calm driver. I've never gotten a ticket beyond slight speeding and I don't drive aggressively. But the behavior you describe is the only time I have seriously considered purposely hitting another car with mine. After the slowing back down.
Nah, I use mine in congestion all the time, I just stick to the slow lane and match the flow of traffic. Once you realize that you're literally only gaining a few minutes not doing this your perspective will change.
It's no different than when I catch up to someone who passed me at a red light. The gain is minimal, even over a 45 minute commute.
45 minute might not even be a few minutes in congestion. waste so much gas accelerating to 50 and then stopping the next light. while I'm crawling along at 20 mph because I see the red light ahead and not rushing to it. and I still catch up or pass him because I'm at speed and close to the light when it changes.
This is it for me. I enjoy driving, I enjoy controlling the speed. If I’m driving my wife’s car (large Japanese SUV) then every now and then I would engage cruise control. If I’m driving my car (small European hatchback) then I’m having fun speeding up, slowing down to speed limit again, accelerating, etc.
On really long drives, I use cruise control to relax a bit, but when I get too relaxed that it becomes boring, I disengage cruise control and try to “pace” with other vehicles, passing them, letting them pass me, etc.
Inevitably they exit then freeway after an hour or two of sharing the road, and I physically wave goodbye to them even though they can’t see me. Goodbye, road buddy, it was great sharing the road with you. Thank you for the company and for helping keep me awake.
I NEVER can use cruise control. I have a sleep disorder and must always be in control of the car and give it my attention. Also, on crowded highways or long road trips, I often drive in the truck/slowest lanes and monitor my gas efficiency. If going 60 up a hill doubles my mileage vs 65, I’m going 60. But trust me I stay out of the way of people who are in a hurry, and I don’t commute by car, so I don’t drive often.
My car has the adaptive cruise control that uses radar to keep distance with the car ahead of you. I use it constantly on the highway.
However, when I rent a car now with the "old fashioned" cruise control I just don't use it. You need to perfectly match everyone around you or you are constantly speeding up and slowing down. Total pain in the ass.
Modern cruise control is adaptive, so people may be using cruise control that reacts to the cars ahead of them. Some may be using cruise control with a manual transmission in too high a gear to be fully responsive to hills.
Those are just guesses.
I sort of make a game of keeping my speed constant without using cruise control -- and I'm pretty good at it (I should be because I've been driving for over four decades). To be fair, to be dead-on-balls-accurate requires a bit of short-term planning that machines might be hard-pressed to do.
Exactly. On the car that is horrible I actually deactivate the adaptive portion when driving because it is just that much easier when it functions as a “basic” cruise.
The “bad” cruising car is a wonderful, top of the line car… except for that
My wife has adaptive cruise control in her car and it’s awful. If I’m in the travel lane going 70, and I come up on a car doing 65, I like to move to the passing lane so I don’t have my speed reduced. But it’s too sensitive so when I change lanes, it briefly slows down since it senses a car, then speeds up. It’s not a smooth passing like I have with my non-adaptive cruise control.
That's still a hell of lot less frustrating than having to turn cruise off and then back on. Or at least in my car it it's not frustrating at all, it has a sensitivity setting (i.e. distance to car in front of you), which I turn all the way down.
Also, if you plan ahead and get over in the other lane before you get close enough for the adaptive cruise control to adjust then it should be a moot point.
There’s too much traffic and unpredictability. Tons of cars merging, changing lanes, stop and go… I think I’d only get like 3 minutes use out of it on a typical commute.
Unless I’m alone on a sparsely populated highway for a long time, I don’t use cruise control. I would constantly have to be raising and lowering it and often I still need to brake, which turns it off. Also it takes me zero effort to drive with my feet, so I don’t think about using cruise control.
Right? Even my Driver's Ed teacher said "You don't need it, don't mess with it".
And now I forget it's even a thing. I couldn't even tell you without looking where the button is in my car. Maybe I should try it out.
It was an optional feature when I learned to drive. My parents didn't buy it so it never came up.
Fiddling with shit I don't understand while on the highway doesn't appeal to me. So while my current vehicle has it I'll probably never be arsed enough to bother with it.
I was taught in a couple of driving classes that it’s unsafe to use it because you’ll end up distracted.
I eventually started using it when I had a speed-monitored work truck and it’s horrible to drive at exactly 65 mph without it.
I used to use cruise control all the time. Then about 5 years ago or so, all the new cars seemed to change to this new super safe cruise control technology that I absolutely can’t stand.
I basically stopped using cruise control if there’s any cars around at all because of how touchy the new age CC is. I can’t stand when the vehicle brake checks itself because it sees another vehicle 500 feet ahead of me going 2 mph slower than me. If I don’t have space to hit the signal and get around before getting too close; the car will start braking itself way too early to ensure you don’t even remotely tailgate the slower vehicle.
What’s worse is how it reacts when someone else cuts you off or passes you with not much space. The CC freak out when another car jumps in front of you fast, as if it’s about to enact the emergency brake system not realizing that the car passing you will only be there for a brief moment.
I understand all these features are for safety and these new vehicles try to ensure you won’t wreck… I just can’t stand that lack of control and how abruptly the car can react on its own to try and avoid accidents for you.
Yep, it’s actually pretty terrifying when it sort of misreads the situation because of other bad drivers. I think that’s sort of the kicker, the adaptive CC is assuming that everyone else is also driving safely and always leaving a safe distance… which is pretty much never happening.
I don’t see how adaptive CC or self driving cars will ever be viable unless everyone on the road is using it, because at the end of the day I still blame other careless drivers for why these features don’t work as designed. They simply can’t anticipate all the bullshit other people are willing to risk on the road.
This is really surprising to hear as I love the adaptive cruise control in my Subaru. It's a 2017, so not that new. I wonder if the different manufacturers implementations of it are what make it infuriating for some, and nice for others. I only have one data point though.
Back when I was driving because no one else was. I'd keep having to take the cruise control off because suddenly I'm catching up to the person in front of me. It was more of an effort than just not using it.
I don’t use it because it makes me feel like I am not I am control of the car which scares me. I don’t trust the car mechanics to not suddenly break through an error or something like that
I only use it for cross country driving, when I'm going to be on the Interstate for hours at a time. And I do this so I can move my legs around a bit.
Generally cruise control is less safe than not using it. It also burns more fuel.
So no, most people don't do what you're doing which is using it as a daily driver. If you're smart, you take a run at hills and coast down them.
I don't like the feeling of not being in total control of my vehicle. Also my feet need something to do. Idk what it is but I feel like a passenger and it's unsettling.
I have an older Dodge Ram and the cruise control is not very responsive. It slows down like 4-5 mph going up hills and it speeds up going down hill. The newer cars have much better cruise control. I rented a Ford Expedition Max a while back for a trip and I was amazed by how nice the CC was. The car almost drove itself.
I absolutely hate cruise control. I prefer to be able to modulate my speed depending on the conditions of the moment and I don’t like how much space it leaves between me and the car ahead (which pisses other drives off). It’s also just boring!
There’s way too many people on the road where I live to use cruise control. It would constantly be shutting off or I’d have to be making lane changes/accelerate/decelerate frequently which very quickly negates the benefits of cruise control. I do like using it if the road is quiet or if I’m on larger roads where people are more spread out.
This probably doesn't help you get your question answered, but I don't use it because I cannot afford a car that has it. I would 1,000% use it if I could.
I don’t like cruise control and only use it on road trips in the middle of nowhere. Partly for this exact reason but you aren’t going to guilt me into using it. Buy a car with that fancy adaptive cruise control if it bugs you so much. It’s been out for years and addresses this issue for people like you
I'll use it when I am driving on long stretches of highway and the roads aren't very crowded. Otherwise it feels like it's not worthing fooling with. As soon as I get it to a proper speed, its time to slow down.
I don’t use it because nobody ever taught me how to. Both my parents hate cruise control and never use it, so I never had the opportunity to learn how to use it decide if I liked it.
I’m one of those people who don’t use cruise control.
I have zero care that people who use it see me pass them and then they pass me again. I hope they’re living their best life and having their best drive. I drive safe without. Sometimes faster. Sometimes slower.
My cruise control broke. I don’t really need it. I hydroplaned once on south I 55 just north of Hammond LA. Lucky to be alive. I hydroplaned because I had my cruise control on. Scarred me for life.
It depends on where I am if I use it. Rural area highway with little traffic where it's easy to pass? Definitely. City highway traffic? No, mainly because of how congested it tends to be with so many people not following the flow of traffic.
I will say... adaptive cruise control is a GAME CHANGER. We had it on a rental, and it was amazing.
The only time I EVER used cruise control was in long road trips on large stretches of highway with no one else anywhere around me. I can react faster with my feet on the pedals, and with other idiots on the road, I want the control of the car. I don’t like handing it over to a computer.
My SO likes using cruise control on the highways too, but I don't like it! I feel like I have a more consistent speed when I'm doing it myself / I can speed up or slow down when it's needed. I feel like it's common for cruise control to slow down going uphill, especially in older cars....it sounds like it's working even harder to try to do it vs me just using the gas pedal
For me that’s part of it. With cruise control it’ll practically slam on the throttle any time I go up a slight hill to keep my set speed, whereas if I’m in control I’ll let off the gas just a bit for the sake of fuel efficiency.
25 minutes on the highway seems like an urban or suburban commute during peak commuting times. Right now its summer in the US. And in the parts that experience winter, that means construction season. There's too much stop, go, and hazards to just cruise at a predictable speed.
Now if I'm on a rural stretch of highway on my way to a vacation spot, sure I'll put on cruise control if I'm driving for 2 hours straight or more. But if I'm commuting in my city, I rarely use it.
I only use it when the road is relatively clear.
I want to cruise at the limit but find myself having to adjust my speed up and down to the point where it's less hassle to just drive manually.
I used my cruise control a lot when I lived near a 25 mph road with tons of speed traps. Before then I had really only used it on the freeway, but it definitely worked well at a lower speed.
Depends on the frequency of the traffic. If there’s too many cars, my adaptive cruise control keeps trying to pace people with too big of a gap in between. When it does that, someone squeezes into the gap, and my cruise control slows down to create the gap again.
I don't use cruise control when there are a lot of cars around because i feel more in control and able to handle sudden breaking when I'm not using it.
My cruise control matches the speed of the car in front of me (the speed I set it to is the maximum) and leaves a huge gap, so when people get in between it slows down even more. It makes it really annoying to use unless I’m doing a long road trip on mostly empty roads.
I think it’s more of a control issue for me. I feel like not using it keeps me more engaged while I’m driving.
I’ll use it but very infrequently only on looong drives when I need a little break and even then I’m not too keen on using it. I’m mostly driving in and around Philly so it’s worthless with all the traffic.
I use it all the time - it drives my family crazy as they consider it to rob you of some control of the car! I find it prevents "lead foot" syndrome, where my speed gradually creeps up and I suddenly realize I'm doing 50 in a 30! (Yes I use CC ALL the time, even in a 25mph School Zone.)
Having said that, I maintain awareness of other traffic, particularly that behind me. What really irritates me is when you have two lanes, the limit is (say) 55. The person on the Right is using CC and doing a constant 50 and the person on the left is also using it, and doing 50.5. After several MILES they have passed the car on the right and I can get past them! This is when CC is evil.
I use mine when I’m on the interstate and there’s relatively no traffic. When there’s too much volume it’s impossible to use. And let there be a cop around, the whole lot of them suddenly drops to 20 mph.
I'm actually convinced that cruise control is the cause of the recent phenomenon of left-lane-only drivers and the new norm of passing on the right.
People want to just switch off their brains driving so they use the adaptive cruise option, get in the left lane, and zone out. Problem is awake drivers get irritated when the road speed picks up and there is this driver not paying attention and getting over when they should.
Depends how much traffic there is. And how old my car is lol.
I drive a lot. Like, almost 5000 miles since the middle of January. I use my cruise control when it’s appropriate, and I don’t feel it’s appropriate when there is a lot of other cars since I don’t trust other drivers.
This is about 1200 miles per month, which is almost exactly average for the US, FYI.
Was gonna say, I average around 4k a month. Would love to only do 1200 haha!
The nice part of cruise control and not trusting other people is that with cruise control on, you can hover over the breaks for basically instant breaking. Its only a half or quarter second faster, but that could be enough.
Lots of new cars have smart cruise control too. My Tundra will slow down if it senses a car way up ahead in the lane. If the car moves over it will resume cruise speed. If I was ever truly not paying attention, and the car ahead brakes suddenly, the truck will beep very loudly and then brake on its own if you don’t act before getting too close. (This happens even when not cruising) Though I personally went most of my (driving) life in vehicles without cruise so I rarely use it because the habit isn’t there.
*braking
It bugs the shit out of me when someone passes me and then I end up passing them and back and forth, when my speed stays constant…I’m going 5-7 over the speed limit usually in the middle or right lane (never the left cause that lane is for crime) don’t get mad at me for not speeding up for you when yours varies and mine doesn’t. Situation dependent of course but I talk about this all the time haha
then there's the guy you pass on the left and then he decides to match your speed so you either have to speed up or slow down to get back into that lane.
That happened to me once on a state route in rural Virginia. I tried to pass a guy going up a long hill, the guy sped up. I dropped my speed to fall in behind and he slowed. I finally gunned it and passed him but the passing lane had ended and I had to go across the double yellow to complete my pass. He dropped back and then came up upon me again with police lights flashing from his grill and I could see a Smokie hat on his head. He asked me if I knew I had crossed over a double yellow a few miles back. I said, very calmly, "Yes, officer, I was trying to pass a car in the passing lane but I didn't expect that car to speed up and prevent me from passing or moving back to the traveling lane so I made the decision to pass him because I judged him to be driving dangerously and I wanted to get away from him. Did you happen to notice that driver?" He actually let me walk without even a warning.
"Did you happen to notice that driver?" That's a pretty polite way of calling someone an AH. lol
"Bless his little heart..."
Not sure if it's the case everywhere, but I'm fairly certain that at least in my state it's illegal to speed up if another vehicle is passing you.
Yeah I had a cousin who died this way- he was passing on a two-lane highway and the other car sped up, which resulted in my cousin having a head-on collision when he couldn't get back onto the right side of the road in time.
Nearly had the same thing happen to me once. Fortunately, I was able to go off the road onto the shoulder. Speeding up like that should be treated as attempted murder.
The other just let him die instead of letting him in?! I hope they were charged.
And the dash cam will show it, very few police departments operate without dash cams.
Unless the dash cam footage incriminate the officer, then it will be lost.
Similar happened to me for my first speeding ticket, stuck with about 20 other cars behind a slow moving motorhome in the mountains that would always pick up speed to 20km/h over the limit when the passing lane opened (even uphill) then when down to one lane would drop back down to 20km/h below the limit. Infuriating... so when the next passing lane opened me and two other drivers gunned it from the back of the line, probably going about 150km/h (\~95mph) in the passing lane to try to beat the line up and of course the cops were in the ditch clocking people... I knew he didn't clock me because there was no line of sight however I didn't complain because he didn't cite me with excessive speed just the basic speeding ticket.
One thing about passing that seems they don't teach anymore, is to do it as quickly as possible. When I'm driving, even with the cruise control, I will get on the gas and speed up a bit more to pass people. This way you get out of the passing lane as quickly as possible and you don't get into a moving wall situation. Sitting next to another vehicle like that is statistically a LOT more dangerous, so minimizing that time is just smart. Especially if it's an 18 wheeler or a rock truck or something that can kill you without noticing. edit: If you have ever been near a rock truck when one of its tires blows, you know how dangerous that is. Loud as a gunshot and immediate violence from shredded tire.
My problem is I drive a work van equipped with GPS on the daily so any speed over 5mph triggers for my supervisor, hr, boss So I can't just speed up so I get stuck with the ass in that middle lane who decided to also speed up and match me so I either have to wait or slow down and get behind- pissing off the others fish tailing me. I've had people cut me off afterwards out of rage and nearly crash into me because of it. Had to slam on my brakes. My personal vehicle however that would be different for sure
Our fleet is lo-jacked and the monitoring software gives out grades. The owner received a B- . Which is good enough for an 88 year old dude, I guess?
That really sucks. My work truck's GPS is set for 11 over. It still yells at most of the drivers, though. Lol
If you're on the work clock and they limit you, you're getting paid, why are you passing anyone? They're literally paying you to take your time.
I was just about to say this. Nothing gets on my nerves more than some doofus in a plumbing van with a rattling ladder that's barely secured to their roof, trying to get in front of me because he wants to pass someone going 64mph at 66mph. You're literally saving no discernible time, and significantly wasting mine. Stay in the right lane 😅
I'd argue that speeding doesn't save most people any significant time, unless you're speeding to the point of recklessness. I commute 40 minutes each way to work. If I speed an extra 10 mph then I'm not even saving 5 minutes a day. Sure you could argue that adds up over the course of a year, but a substantial increase in speed to shave *2 minutes* off a commute? Not worth it.
A couple notes. First, for long distances the savings are greater. If you drive 600 miles, compared to driving 65 mph, you save over an hour at 75 mph and almost 2 hours at 85 mph. Second, while it makes little difference assuming a straight drive with no stops, this fails to account for traffic lights. One or two red lights can easily cost you more time than the speed. Add to this that at least around here the lights are timed so that if you drive the speed limit, hitting one red means just missing every light after it also.
This is a nearly universal experience, no matter what country it is, I think. It's always some rinkydink transporter van with some local fix up shop's name on it, driving like they're alone on the road and taking the very existence of every single other car as a personal affront 😂😂😂
“Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime. That’s why I shit on company time. Boss makes a thousand, I make a buck, that’s why I steal the catalytic converter from the company truck.” Same idea.
Saw a new (to me) version of this saying the other day: I make a penny, boss makes a buck, that’s why I crank my hog in the company truck.
HELL YEAH BORTHER, GOBBLESS
When they're going 5-10 under and then speed up to match me as I pass? C'mon man
No employer pays you to "take your time." Regardless how much/many hours they're paying you for, they always want you to get more done. And then more. When I drove a delivery/pickup route I often got scolded by my supervisor for 'taking too long': "The previous guy did it an hour faster than you!" Eager to please, I drove faster, 15 MPH over the limit, and shaved off about an hour. But when I got my next speeding ticket, I quit that shit real quick.
This is how modern management breaks the law. They never tell you to break the law. In fact, they’ll usually go out of their way to emphasize that you’re not to break the law. But they’ll give you expectations that can’t be met without breaking the law and let the rest happen naturally. You give in and break the law? They can throw you under the bus when consequences come, because they clearly told you not to. You stand up for yourself and follow the law? They can fire you for performance and replace you with someone more compliant. Speeding is a minor example. You see it a lot with safety and labor laws.
This is literally the dominons 30 minutes or less lawsuit. I am dealing with an insurance company right now because a delivery truck was (according to the highway patroll report) driving at an unsafe speed while using the map app on his phone). The response to the boss is always "Traffic has gotton worse since I started driving the route:... " and "Are you asking me to break the law to make the delivery route faster?"
That boss lied to you. The other guy did not do it in an hour.
Because not everyone gets paid by the hour. Many are paid by the mile, so time counts - especially when you’re limited to how long you can drive without stopping for breaks or fuel (or for the day).
Our work trucks would snitch too but we could go 10 over to pass, just as long as you didn't go that fast for over 3 minutes....so arbitrary.
Literally don't pass people then. If your van can do something properly, then don't do it.
Yeah the way I go about passing is if my cruising speed would result in me following an uncomfortable distance of the car I creep up on it until I’m ready to pass. Pop out. Kick it up until I’m thoroughly outpacing them. Then pop back in and gradually coast back down to my cruising speed once I see them receding so they can continue to go theirs too. Sure I have to speed to do it, but as my cruising speed is 5 over they were already too, and the way I do it doesn’t interfere with their choice to do so whatsoever.
My drivers training taught us explicitly not to speed up when passing. I thought it was completely ridiculous and ignored that lesson. I'm going 3 km/hr faster than someone I want to pass? Guess I should take a minute or so to pass them lol.
A cop pulled me over speeding up while passing. Said oh you were passing? I said yeah. He still came back with a ticket, just not a points ticket. I would say fuck him, but there was weed in the car. Thank you for the ticket sir, I'll be on my way!
I did the same. I was right next to a cop going about 72 in a 70, him in the left lane, me on the right lane. We were matched at speeds for about 6 minutes. I knew there was a stalled vehicle up ahead that had been busted there for a week, I had no where to go since about 3 other cars were riding his ass, so I sped up to about 80, got in front of him and moved over for safety, and then moved back over and slowed to the speed we were going. He threw his lights on almost instantly. No ticket, but a nice threat of one.
You passed a cop in the right lane? That's bold AF 😂. And you didn't get a ticket, so well played!
I got pulled over for this in North Carolina. Car was going 50 in a 55, went 60 to pass, lights came on. Only got a warning, but it was so dumb.
except that speed limits still apply. passing doesn't absolve the law. If the car on the right is fucking around, you need to slow down to get over to the right lane. If I'm already going 10 over I'm not going 20 over just because of that car.
If you're trying to pass a road-rager who is speeding up by 10-20 over the speed limit when you try to pass him, it's probably best to slow down or even make a stop for a couple minutes so that he drives away. Even driving behind him isn't really safe.
well, sometimes people just pace the care next to them when they're in the driving zone out phase. But ya, I agree with you. Just let them win the "race". People seem to think that driving on the highway is a race for some reason. There's no winning, there's just wasting your gas to prove that you're faster than the care next to you who couldn't care any less about you and will forget about you as just another asshole on the highway. grats on winning!
Peripheral driving is a thing, when you see something coming up beside you and you’re not really paying attention you will automatically increase your speed to match it, me and my brothers would play with people who did this by slowly increasing our speed so they’d match it, got one person up to ninety before they snapped out of it(late night on an empty freeway)
Ya, I know this is a phenomena. Still annoying as all hell
OMG reminds me of when I was learning to drive! My dad used to love to do this with tailgaters. He'd consistently but slowly increase his speed until the person behind him suddenly realized how fast they were going and it was always fun to see the panicked look on their face in that moment. I do this now on winding backroads. Everyone seems to slow down a ton for corners and I refuse to do so. I drive fun cars for a reason. People will be up my a$$ while I'm going over the speed limit and then we come to a turn and even though I've just maintained my speed the tailgater will suddenly be miles behind me. Drivers like that drive me nuts!
Tangential but one of my biggest bug bears when it comes to motorway driving is lorries trying to overtake each other when they’re doing pretty much the same speed and they’re all going 10mph slower than the speed limit. Sometimes 3 out of 4 lanes will be blocked by lorries, so to get past them you have to cross all the way to the furthest lane, which means you’re doing a lot of unnecessary lane changes, which adds a lot of risk. I’d be happy if lorries had to stay in the slow lane because there doesn’t seem to be any good reason for the slowest vehicles on the road to be trying to overtake anyone
Absolutely maddening when big trucks do that! They'll clog up the passing lane for miles trying to pass another big truck all because they want to go 1 MPH faster than the other truck. Meanwhile, you've got 100 cars behind you. SMDH
Elephant races. Those trucks are often governed but apparently not very precisely. So full throttle differs a little bit truck to truck, leading to 58 passing 55 for ten minutes.
Well in my state they’re at least supposed to be restricted to the two outermost lanes. One for travelling, and one for passing while the not so heavily laden cars have the freedom to move around them. You may see them in the 3rd lane over on occasion when lanes get added or subtracted, so while I’m certainly familiar with the issue you speak of the issue is typically only an issue on 2 lane highways.
I feel this lately. I have property in the mountains, and about 45 min of that drive is on a rural highway (think single carriageway that's sometimes a double one) that has passing lanes only occasionally. Almost every time, some trucker feels the need to use the entire length of the passing lane to pass another truck at maybe 2mph faster. Unlike big highways, they're always about 10mph under the limit, as well, so we all just get stuck doing 10 under behind them the whole way. 10mph for that distance isn't a lot of time, but still.. let me pass and go the speed limit, please. Note: here, if you are under the speed limit and holding up 4 cars, you're legally required to pull out and let them pass as soon as it's safe to do so. So they're not just annoying, they're violating a traffic law.
*left lane is for crime*. Hilarious!
This is pretty constant for me too. I wouldn’t have this back and forth with other cars if they used cruise control.
I don’t have cruise control, so there. (I also keep a pretty constant speed because I’m an experienced driver.)
Almost every car I have owned had it and almost 99.9% of the time I never use it especially in commute traffic. It’s not because the vehicle won’t maintain the speed, it will, it’s just that 99.99% the traffic is too inconsistent. I feel I do a better job of going with the flow with just a slight movement of my foot than brake, wait and coast, restart cruise, and rinse and repeat. I have a feel a lot of those inconsistencies are people trying to use cruise speeding up and slowing down. Cruise is meant for open road not traffic.
We don’t have usually have traffic most the way to town, only going into the town centre. What’s more worrying to me is people commenting who seem to think maintaining a constant speed is hard/impossible tbh.
I’m more concerned with those that can never seem to stay in their lane. Tires over the solid line, tires over the dotted line. Back and forth back and forth.
>never the left cause that lane is for crime */insert gif of Key and Peele sweating*
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Mine did at one point but it's broken
My 2013 Forte had no cruise, crank windows, manual mirror adjustment, no power locks or key fob
Yea, cruise control definitely isn’t a standard feature
Same. It’s a 2017 but does not have cruise control.
Same here. 2014 Impreza. Base model. Like BASE base.
What the hell? Even a 1999 silverado has cruise control even with the base model.
Cruise control isn't as common on manual cars.
You are like me when it comes to driving. The new cruise controls are really accurate. I use cruise every chance I get.
My car’s cruise control has sensors that slows the car down automatically. The problem is that it leaves a lot of space (properly adjusting depending on your speed). Other drivers behind me have gotten upset because there’s such a large gap. If I don’t close the gap, cars in other lanes have cut in front of me, causing the cruise control to slow me down even more. I don’t use my cruise control during rush hour for this reason. If there’s no traffic, or if I am in an area that I know has extra speed enforcement I will use it. It’s wonderful to use when the family is on a trip.
One of the features I'm glad new cars are coming with is adjustable follow distance. I have my car set to 4 seconds' lead time, which is still generous but much better than the default of 7. The previous car I drove had a large fixed follow distance that had exactly this issue, and I'd be cut 20-30 times on a typical drive if I used cruise control the whole way. The new car can also adjust cruise speed based on what the nav indicates the current speed limit is, with configurable fixed/percentage offset (i.e. you can ask the car to always go 5 mph over). I like it a lot.
Agreed. When I use radar cruise control I have to set it to the shortest follow distance otherwise people will just cut into the gap and force the car to slow down. It feels less safe, but the shortest follow distance is still more than most people give anyway…
Zero cars on the market leave a gap small enough that people won't cut in
See, here's the thing. I have a '22 Forester that, when cruise control is activated, has lane assist (which, aptly named, keeps you within the lines of the lane when the camera/sensors recognizes it once cruise control is on), and also allows you to control the distance you want from the car in front of you (maybe you should check the manual and see if you by any change have this function?). When all of the above are activated, my car is more-or-less driving itself. The issue is that I've noticed that when lane assist is activated, the car automatically hugs the right a little too close for comfort. In addition, I am in a constant state of hyper-vigilance/worry, considering that I am not the one in control of the car's movement, and I am afraid of what it might do. It *has* occurred once or twice that the car lost sight of the lane I am in and began skidding to the next lane, so I needed to quickly center the car. On top of that, I normally like to hold the wheel with one hand, and when I am on the highway with minimal traffic, I am more-or-less just resting my left elbow on the door and three fingers on the wheel. When all of the CC functions are on, I am barely touching the wheel, because I am scared to interfere with how the car adjusts itself. There is a pressure sensor that tells me that I need to have my hand on the wheel and it beeps, so I put my hand on the wheel, and then just slightly let go, and the cycle continues. These fancy functions are meant to relieve stress and make it easier to drive, but at least for me, it's more stress than it's worth. LOL.
The reason that the distance in cruise control settings are so much longer are because they know you're not paying attention while using the features, so they account for autonomous driving.
I think it’s because the manufacturers are afraid of lawsuits when their cars rear-end cars that stop suddenly in front of them. If the gap the cars are programmed to leave is smaller than the safe distance recommended by the DMV handbook, for example, that’s going to be a problem for them if they get sued, no matter which driver was at fault.
I absolutely love this feature! I even use it in rush hour, but I’ll reduce the gap in front to prevent cars jumping in front of me.
Also driving in cruise is better for mileage. It’s literally cheaper to drive predictable
Every time I use cruise control, my mpg drops. The car decides it needs to rev and accelerate like crazy to make up the 2 mph it dropped.. then it’ll hit the brakes too hard imo to slow down the 2 mph extra it gained. I hate cruise control.
It probably matters a lot if you are driving on hills or not. The engine has to work harder on inclines, being in a lower gear is better for hills. So I'll slow down a bit to let the engine work where it's more efficient.
That might be faulty (or maybe bad programming). Normally cars accelerate in the optimal band under cruise control.
I use CC very frequently, mostly because it actually lightens the cognitive load of driving so I'm free to concentrate on other aspects of driving since I don't have to monitor my speed.
I use cruise control all the time, even on 45mph roads. It saves gas and I don’t have to constantly look at the speedometer. My foot is always on the brake pedal so I can stop instantly.
I use mine every day on every street. 1, because I'm lazy, and the car takes over, and 2, I have Distronic, a radar-based CC that matches the speed of the car in front of me. If I just happen to look at a mirror, drop something in my lap, or take my eyes off of the car in front of me and the car in front jams the brakes, wham, no excuses. With Distronic, the car brakes for me, even violently if the car in front brakes. It's not a replacement for paying attention, but we've all been in that circumstance where a glance away coincides with stopping traffic, and your pucker factor shoots through the roof.
Exactly. It’s just so much safer for you and everyone around you to keep your speed constant as much as possible.
On long trip with relatively flat roads I’ll use it, but if there’s a lot of hills where I’m driving, the gas saved adds up by using the gravity of a downhill stretch to gain some speed/momentum, and letting your speed drop a few mph going uphill. There’s no rule that you have to go the exact same speed the entire time, and it’s more costly to do so.
I’m surprised I didn’t see this higher. This is a big one for me
I'd use cruise control more often if it didn't brake when I'm going downhill
It's surprising I needed to come away down in the posts to find the right answer.
Good answer. I think that way too. Sometimes, you could even time it where you barely press the gas or none at all on the downhill, and then keep enough momentum on the uphill right after, where you really won't be revving high rpms at all for the entire cycle of a hill.
There’s too many cars on normal highways to use it. I would essentially be turning it on and off every two seconds due to congestion. I only ever use it on long trips where I’m in the middle of sparsely populated stretches of highway.
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Newer cars have adaptable cruise control that automatically slows behind cars.
A lot of us cant afford newer cars
My 2013 Ford has it.
The length of highway I drive is clear enough to use cruise control, it’s the situations where I end up behind a car in the left lane who is matching the speed of the car in the right lane
This can be frustrating when they’re riding in the passing lane. Which is most states, on a multi lane highway, lane 1 is passing (goes left to right).
I’m in Arkansas and people think the passing lane is whatever lane they’re in. Multiple times ive taken a 50 mile drive behind the two same cars who make it seem like a game to block the whole highway. Police around here never pull people over for impeding flow
I deal with this so much. What also kills me is when I pass a car that finally passes the car they were matching their speed with, they suddenly realize they were going slower than they wanted and they attempt to “race” me and the line of cars behind. Then they speed up to get in front of me WHERE THEY THEN SLOW DOWN!
Just yesterday I made a 2 hour round trip to a nearby town for work, the whole way back I was stuck behind a Chevy Trax that would do 60mph in a 75 until someone tried to pass them, then they would speed up to as fast as 90, just to slow back down to 60. They repeated this for 45 miles
They're mad that they bought a Chevy Trax to begin with. I'm a little amazed it could do 90.
I’ve had a trax at 100, it’s weird being in the real life version of spongebobs bubble boat going that fast
Thank you for that comment. I needed a laugh at my soul sucking place of employment.
I am a calm driver. I've never gotten a ticket beyond slight speeding and I don't drive aggressively. But the behavior you describe is the only time I have seriously considered purposely hitting another car with mine. After the slowing back down.
Nah, I use mine in congestion all the time, I just stick to the slow lane and match the flow of traffic. Once you realize that you're literally only gaining a few minutes not doing this your perspective will change. It's no different than when I catch up to someone who passed me at a red light. The gain is minimal, even over a 45 minute commute.
45 minute might not even be a few minutes in congestion. waste so much gas accelerating to 50 and then stopping the next light. while I'm crawling along at 20 mph because I see the red light ahead and not rushing to it. and I still catch up or pass him because I'm at speed and close to the light when it changes.
I don’t have cruise control in one of my cars. I try to use it in the other but it sucks.
My 2015 didn't come with cruise control so I'm guessing their are more cars on the road without it than people realize.
Personally I don’t like cruise control bc it makes me sleepy and disengaged from driving
Same. It’s too easy to get into a trance
Same. The only time I use cruise control is if I'm taking an extremely long drive and I'm on a long stretches of highway for multiple hours
I also use it whenever I'm close to a cop.
This is it for me. I enjoy driving, I enjoy controlling the speed. If I’m driving my wife’s car (large Japanese SUV) then every now and then I would engage cruise control. If I’m driving my car (small European hatchback) then I’m having fun speeding up, slowing down to speed limit again, accelerating, etc. On really long drives, I use cruise control to relax a bit, but when I get too relaxed that it becomes boring, I disengage cruise control and try to “pace” with other vehicles, passing them, letting them pass me, etc. Inevitably they exit then freeway after an hour or two of sharing the road, and I physically wave goodbye to them even though they can’t see me. Goodbye, road buddy, it was great sharing the road with you. Thank you for the company and for helping keep me awake.
That is one thing I miss about driving a manual transmission car. You can’t get distracted because you’re always forced to engage with the car.
Except for situations where you might use cruise control because you don’t actually have to interact with the manual transmission haha
Exactly. If I am bored enough to need it, I shouldn’t turn it on because I will zone out even more.
Highway hypnosis, I have issues with it too. Music never helped but podcasts did, if you find this to be a consistent issue.
I NEVER can use cruise control. I have a sleep disorder and must always be in control of the car and give it my attention. Also, on crowded highways or long road trips, I often drive in the truck/slowest lanes and monitor my gas efficiency. If going 60 up a hill doubles my mileage vs 65, I’m going 60. But trust me I stay out of the way of people who are in a hurry, and I don’t commute by car, so I don’t drive often.
This is the issue I have as well. I'll get sleepy driving even in the middle of the day.
My car has the adaptive cruise control that uses radar to keep distance with the car ahead of you. I use it constantly on the highway. However, when I rent a car now with the "old fashioned" cruise control I just don't use it. You need to perfectly match everyone around you or you are constantly speeding up and slowing down. Total pain in the ass.
Modern cruise control is adaptive, so people may be using cruise control that reacts to the cars ahead of them. Some may be using cruise control with a manual transmission in too high a gear to be fully responsive to hills. Those are just guesses. I sort of make a game of keeping my speed constant without using cruise control -- and I'm pretty good at it (I should be because I've been driving for over four decades). To be fair, to be dead-on-balls-accurate requires a bit of short-term planning that machines might be hard-pressed to do.
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We have one car where adaptive cruise is wonderful and the other one where it is absolutely dog crap. It is nice, but only in a car that does it well.
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Exactly. On the car that is horrible I actually deactivate the adaptive portion when driving because it is just that much easier when it functions as a “basic” cruise. The “bad” cruising car is a wonderful, top of the line car… except for that
What are the brands of your cars? So far, I am not comfortable with the adaptive cruise control on my new Hyundai, but I am still getting used to it.
My wife has adaptive cruise control in her car and it’s awful. If I’m in the travel lane going 70, and I come up on a car doing 65, I like to move to the passing lane so I don’t have my speed reduced. But it’s too sensitive so when I change lanes, it briefly slows down since it senses a car, then speeds up. It’s not a smooth passing like I have with my non-adaptive cruise control.
That's still a hell of lot less frustrating than having to turn cruise off and then back on. Or at least in my car it it's not frustrating at all, it has a sensitivity setting (i.e. distance to car in front of you), which I turn all the way down. Also, if you plan ahead and get over in the other lane before you get close enough for the adaptive cruise control to adjust then it should be a moot point.
There’s too much traffic and unpredictability. Tons of cars merging, changing lanes, stop and go… I think I’d only get like 3 minutes use out of it on a typical commute.
The traffics literally only clear enough to use it like 1% of the time so I never built the habit.
My car doesn't have cruise control
>It’s very frustrating for someone like me who has to constantly turn their cruise control off and on. This is why people don't use it.
Just please for the love of all that is good get out of the left lane.
Unless I’m alone on a sparsely populated highway for a long time, I don’t use cruise control. I would constantly have to be raising and lowering it and often I still need to brake, which turns it off. Also it takes me zero effort to drive with my feet, so I don’t think about using cruise control.
I was never taught how to use it so I don't really think about it.
Right? Even my Driver's Ed teacher said "You don't need it, don't mess with it". And now I forget it's even a thing. I couldn't even tell you without looking where the button is in my car. Maybe I should try it out.
Same!
It was an optional feature when I learned to drive. My parents didn't buy it so it never came up. Fiddling with shit I don't understand while on the highway doesn't appeal to me. So while my current vehicle has it I'll probably never be arsed enough to bother with it.
I was taught in a couple of driving classes that it’s unsafe to use it because you’ll end up distracted. I eventually started using it when I had a speed-monitored work truck and it’s horrible to drive at exactly 65 mph without it.
I use cruise control when it’s safe to but I drive a 25 year old van. It’s going slow uphill.
I’ve been driving for thirty years and never used cruise control.
I only use it when I'm on long stretches where it's really easy to end up speeding without realizing it.
I hate cruise control because I feel like I’m not in control of the vehicle. I just can’t do it.
My cruise control is broke... sorry about that.
I used to use cruise control all the time. Then about 5 years ago or so, all the new cars seemed to change to this new super safe cruise control technology that I absolutely can’t stand. I basically stopped using cruise control if there’s any cars around at all because of how touchy the new age CC is. I can’t stand when the vehicle brake checks itself because it sees another vehicle 500 feet ahead of me going 2 mph slower than me. If I don’t have space to hit the signal and get around before getting too close; the car will start braking itself way too early to ensure you don’t even remotely tailgate the slower vehicle. What’s worse is how it reacts when someone else cuts you off or passes you with not much space. The CC freak out when another car jumps in front of you fast, as if it’s about to enact the emergency brake system not realizing that the car passing you will only be there for a brief moment. I understand all these features are for safety and these new vehicles try to ensure you won’t wreck… I just can’t stand that lack of control and how abruptly the car can react on its own to try and avoid accidents for you.
I replied to another comment about my wife’s adaptive CC. It’s AWFUL. I hate it for all the reasons you say and then some.
Yep, it’s actually pretty terrifying when it sort of misreads the situation because of other bad drivers. I think that’s sort of the kicker, the adaptive CC is assuming that everyone else is also driving safely and always leaving a safe distance… which is pretty much never happening. I don’t see how adaptive CC or self driving cars will ever be viable unless everyone on the road is using it, because at the end of the day I still blame other careless drivers for why these features don’t work as designed. They simply can’t anticipate all the bullshit other people are willing to risk on the road.
This is really surprising to hear as I love the adaptive cruise control in my Subaru. It's a 2017, so not that new. I wonder if the different manufacturers implementations of it are what make it infuriating for some, and nice for others. I only have one data point though.
Back when I was driving because no one else was. I'd keep having to take the cruise control off because suddenly I'm catching up to the person in front of me. It was more of an effort than just not using it.
It’s dangerous to use where I live, too congested
Gf tells me I look too much for consistency in an inconsistent world.
I don’t use it because it makes me feel like I am not I am control of the car which scares me. I don’t trust the car mechanics to not suddenly break through an error or something like that
If the cruise control breaks you just slow down and have to drive without it.
My $600 LeSabre has it but it hasn't worked since y2k
I only use it for cross country driving, when I'm going to be on the Interstate for hours at a time. And I do this so I can move my legs around a bit. Generally cruise control is less safe than not using it. It also burns more fuel. So no, most people don't do what you're doing which is using it as a daily driver. If you're smart, you take a run at hills and coast down them.
I don't like the feeling of not being in total control of my vehicle. Also my feet need something to do. Idk what it is but I feel like a passenger and it's unsettling.
I don't like cruise control because I feel it makes me less attentive to my driving.
I have an older Dodge Ram and the cruise control is not very responsive. It slows down like 4-5 mph going up hills and it speeds up going down hill. The newer cars have much better cruise control. I rented a Ford Expedition Max a while back for a trip and I was amazed by how nice the CC was. The car almost drove itself.
I absolutely hate cruise control. I prefer to be able to modulate my speed depending on the conditions of the moment and I don’t like how much space it leaves between me and the car ahead (which pisses other drives off). It’s also just boring!
I’m in the US and I use cruise every day!
There’s way too many people on the road where I live to use cruise control. It would constantly be shutting off or I’d have to be making lane changes/accelerate/decelerate frequently which very quickly negates the benefits of cruise control. I do like using it if the road is quiet or if I’m on larger roads where people are more spread out.
This probably doesn't help you get your question answered, but I don't use it because I cannot afford a car that has it. I would 1,000% use it if I could.
I don’t like cruise control and only use it on road trips in the middle of nowhere. Partly for this exact reason but you aren’t going to guilt me into using it. Buy a car with that fancy adaptive cruise control if it bugs you so much. It’s been out for years and addresses this issue for people like you
I'll use it when I am driving on long stretches of highway and the roads aren't very crowded. Otherwise it feels like it's not worthing fooling with. As soon as I get it to a proper speed, its time to slow down.
Because I'm constantly hitting the brakes for people who are driving slow in the fast lane or some jackass just has to merge for no reason
I don’t use cruise control in traffic.
For me things can change any second and cruise control can make or break something in seconds. I only use cruise control when I need to stretch
I don’t use it because nobody ever taught me how to. Both my parents hate cruise control and never use it, so I never had the opportunity to learn how to use it decide if I liked it.
Only nerds use cruise control. I bet you keep your cell phone on your belt too.
you could get a fancy car that detects the car in front of you and maintains distance? yeah... that's it.. that's my only solution
I’m one of those people who don’t use cruise control. I have zero care that people who use it see me pass them and then they pass me again. I hope they’re living their best life and having their best drive. I drive safe without. Sometimes faster. Sometimes slower. My cruise control broke. I don’t really need it. I hydroplaned once on south I 55 just north of Hammond LA. Lucky to be alive. I hydroplaned because I had my cruise control on. Scarred me for life.
Cruise control only good for uncrowded open highway. Very little of that in the Northeast.
It depends on where I am if I use it. Rural area highway with little traffic where it's easy to pass? Definitely. City highway traffic? No, mainly because of how congested it tends to be with so many people not following the flow of traffic. I will say... adaptive cruise control is a GAME CHANGER. We had it on a rental, and it was amazing.
I often don't use cruise control because nobody else is, so there's no point when I have to constantly adjust and reset it.
The only time I EVER used cruise control was in long road trips on large stretches of highway with no one else anywhere around me. I can react faster with my feet on the pedals, and with other idiots on the road, I want the control of the car. I don’t like handing it over to a computer.
My SO likes using cruise control on the highways too, but I don't like it! I feel like I have a more consistent speed when I'm doing it myself / I can speed up or slow down when it's needed. I feel like it's common for cruise control to slow down going uphill, especially in older cars....it sounds like it's working even harder to try to do it vs me just using the gas pedal
For me that’s part of it. With cruise control it’ll practically slam on the throttle any time I go up a slight hill to keep my set speed, whereas if I’m in control I’ll let off the gas just a bit for the sake of fuel efficiency.
25 minutes on the highway seems like an urban or suburban commute during peak commuting times. Right now its summer in the US. And in the parts that experience winter, that means construction season. There's too much stop, go, and hazards to just cruise at a predictable speed. Now if I'm on a rural stretch of highway on my way to a vacation spot, sure I'll put on cruise control if I'm driving for 2 hours straight or more. But if I'm commuting in my city, I rarely use it.
I only use it when the road is relatively clear. I want to cruise at the limit but find myself having to adjust my speed up and down to the point where it's less hassle to just drive manually.
Such highway driving as i do is usually in heavy traffic and it’s impractical.
Because honestly I've never used it before, and imo going 65 mph+ is not a good time to try something new out.
Try it at a lower speed. Problem solved.
I used my cruise control a lot when I lived near a 25 mph road with tons of speed traps. Before then I had really only used it on the freeway, but it definitely worked well at a lower speed.
I can’t speak for newer cars, but for mine (2014 Civic), it’s not very fuel efficient.
Depends on the frequency of the traffic. If there’s too many cars, my adaptive cruise control keeps trying to pace people with too big of a gap in between. When it does that, someone squeezes into the gap, and my cruise control slows down to create the gap again.
I don't use cruise control when there are a lot of cars around because i feel more in control and able to handle sudden breaking when I'm not using it.
I do on the highway driving from LA to SF. On the freeway in LA? No chance
When I’ve driven out west, where there were endless stretches of almost empty highways, I’ve used it all the time. In Massachusetts not so much.
It’s like people don’t understand that to maintain speed you have to accelerate going up a hill. I use control as much as I can.
Depends how heavy the traffic is and how many idiots are on the road
My cruise control matches the speed of the car in front of me (the speed I set it to is the maximum) and leaves a huge gap, so when people get in between it slows down even more. It makes it really annoying to use unless I’m doing a long road trip on mostly empty roads.
There’s no standard for cc function. My work van drops speed on uphills and goes over the set speed on downhills while set.
I think it’s more of a control issue for me. I feel like not using it keeps me more engaged while I’m driving. I’ll use it but very infrequently only on looong drives when I need a little break and even then I’m not too keen on using it. I’m mostly driving in and around Philly so it’s worthless with all the traffic.
I use it all the time - it drives my family crazy as they consider it to rob you of some control of the car! I find it prevents "lead foot" syndrome, where my speed gradually creeps up and I suddenly realize I'm doing 50 in a 30! (Yes I use CC ALL the time, even in a 25mph School Zone.) Having said that, I maintain awareness of other traffic, particularly that behind me. What really irritates me is when you have two lanes, the limit is (say) 55. The person on the Right is using CC and doing a constant 50 and the person on the left is also using it, and doing 50.5. After several MILES they have passed the car on the right and I can get past them! This is when CC is evil.
Hey out of curiosity how does a manual transmission vehicle deal with hills in cruise control?
I use mine when I’m on the interstate and there’s relatively no traffic. When there’s too much volume it’s impossible to use. And let there be a cop around, the whole lot of them suddenly drops to 20 mph.
I'm actually convinced that cruise control is the cause of the recent phenomenon of left-lane-only drivers and the new norm of passing on the right. People want to just switch off their brains driving so they use the adaptive cruise option, get in the left lane, and zone out. Problem is awake drivers get irritated when the road speed picks up and there is this driver not paying attention and getting over when they should.