Am I the only person around here who uses cruise control? Like all the time. Set it for 5 over, and I’m good. With adaptive cruise control, it will even slow you down when the guy in front is going slower.
My problem with ACC is that it makes traffic worse. A competent driver can look 500 feet up the road and think “oh, brake lights, I can literally just coast down and we’ll be going the same speed when they start moving again.” But ACC only looks at the car in front of you, so you get this constant accelerate and brake cycle that ripples backwards. Like on open road its fine, as long as you keep the following distance at a reasonable level, but I swear every asshole with a late model SUV keeps theirs set on tailgate mode, and it means any slowdown turns into stop and go
Edit: also cc is hella inefficient and will chew up a good 10% of your fuel economy on hilly terrain. If you set and forget it’s basically an “I would like to pay more money to the oil company please” button
I’ve found leaving the distance on the ACC at the longest stabilizes the speed pretty well (when people aren’t taking advantage of the fact your car is known for having ACC so they cut you off even if you’re not using it, expecting the computer to give them room. Just cut off Teslas, they have the ACC and it’s a nazi car company. Don’t cut off my VW dammit)
I remember once seeing a test where about two dozen drivers were asked to drive in a large circle. All it takes is one or two brakes in order to have this big accordion effect going through the whole thing.
I don’t know if that’s universal for ACC, mine will gradually slow down with traffic as long as I don’t have the follow distance set to the minimum. The only times it hard brakes is when someone cuts me off or if the car(s) ahead slam on their brakes, but even in that case it will try to slow down as gradually as it can while eating up that gap.
Also, on hilly terrain it will allow a fair deviation from the set speed before it will try to accelerate/brake more aggressively (usually +/- 5-10 km/h).
My car originally had that, but one day it came back from the service appointment at the dealership and that was no longer available. Software update removed that, probably because too many people were falling asleep thanks to that and the lane assist shit.
I almost got very messed up in a rental car using that. I was on a fairly tight winding road just West of Klamath Falls in Oregon. There was a concrete barrier median, the roadway, while fast was very 3 dimensional. I was overtaking a logging truck to my right with afternoon sun creating a ton of broken light (really pretty honestly). But the adaptive cruise got messed up with everything going on and did a hard braking when I absolutely didn’t expect and was very much not convenient to keep control. The brakes were worn so it tried to dive to the right, toward the semi. It was very memorable.
Oof. May I ask what car it was? I’ve mostly had good experiences with my car’s ACC (older prius) but I think it’s because I’ve learned its limits and eccentricities. My mother’s car has the ACC and lane keeping (which both work better than mine, but her car is newer and an Acura, not a Toyota. Luxury models, &c.) but they behave very differently than my car’s.
This was a pretty new Dodge Hornet. Now, I’ve been a long–time Dodge hater. For many reasons. But I’m strongly guessing that they’re worse than almost anyone else in the digital realm. It got terrible fuel economy (as all Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler vehicles do) but it was an ineffective hybrid so it also had a tiny fuel tank for that bad mileage. If you can’t get a realistic 400 mile journey in a go, there’s no reason to have a gas engine at all. And I was maybe getting 260 miles between fill ups. Also, I couldn’t get into the fucking thing. So, it’s a Dodge Hornet but it’s really a crossover SUV or whatever they want to call them. In effect, quite a large vehicle. But the entryway was so full of plastic I had to move the seat well back from my driving position to get into it. And even then, I almost always hit my head. All those complaints aside, I have driven a Nissan (which, also, not the biggest fan) but it did have really solid ACC. So I’m guessing the ACC panic in the Dodge was just a Dodge thing or specific to that vehicle. When I got to the coast, I ran it through the car wash and then went and made sure all of the sensors were clean. It still did it again on the trip home with even less reason to freak out (to my knowledge and intuition on the system) but also in a much safer situation.
i was betting ford. our last good ford was a green '94 aerostar, you know the kind. we didn’t get nissan or toyota mileage (either efficiency or distance before the engine died) but it was a good minivan.
Am I the only person around here who uses cruise control? Like all the time. Set it for 5 over, and I’m good. With adaptive cruise control, it will even slow you down when the guy in front is going slower.
My problem with ACC is that it makes traffic worse. A competent driver can look 500 feet up the road and think “oh, brake lights, I can literally just coast down and we’ll be going the same speed when they start moving again.” But ACC only looks at the car in front of you, so you get this constant accelerate and brake cycle that ripples backwards. Like on open road its fine, as long as you keep the following distance at a reasonable level, but I swear every asshole with a late model SUV keeps theirs set on tailgate mode, and it means any slowdown turns into stop and go
Edit: also cc is hella inefficient and will chew up a good 10% of your fuel economy on hilly terrain. If you set and forget it’s basically an “I would like to pay more money to the oil company please” button
I’ve found leaving the distance on the ACC at the longest stabilizes the speed pretty well (when people aren’t taking advantage of the fact your car is known for having ACC so they cut you off even if you’re not using it, expecting the computer to give them room. Just cut off Teslas, they have the ACC and it’s a nazi car company. Don’t cut off my VW dammit)
Not in a hybrid with Hill Descent Control. That’s just more juice in the battery.
That’s cheating :P
It’s the future!
I remember once seeing a test where about two dozen drivers were asked to drive in a large circle. All it takes is one or two brakes in order to have this big accordion effect going through the whole thing.
I don’t know if that’s universal for ACC, mine will gradually slow down with traffic as long as I don’t have the follow distance set to the minimum. The only times it hard brakes is when someone cuts me off or if the car(s) ahead slam on their brakes, but even in that case it will try to slow down as gradually as it can while eating up that gap.
Also, on hilly terrain it will allow a fair deviation from the set speed before it will try to accelerate/brake more aggressively (usually +/- 5-10 km/h).
My car originally had that, but one day it came back from the service appointment at the dealership and that was no longer available. Software update removed that, probably because too many people were falling asleep thanks to that and the lane assist shit.
I almost got very messed up in a rental car using that. I was on a fairly tight winding road just West of Klamath Falls in Oregon. There was a concrete barrier median, the roadway, while fast was very 3 dimensional. I was overtaking a logging truck to my right with afternoon sun creating a ton of broken light (really pretty honestly). But the adaptive cruise got messed up with everything going on and did a hard braking when I absolutely didn’t expect and was very much not convenient to keep control. The brakes were worn so it tried to dive to the right, toward the semi. It was very memorable.
Oof. May I ask what car it was? I’ve mostly had good experiences with my car’s ACC (older prius) but I think it’s because I’ve learned its limits and eccentricities. My mother’s car has the ACC and lane keeping (which both work better than mine, but her car is newer and an Acura, not a Toyota. Luxury models, &c.) but they behave very differently than my car’s.
This was a pretty new Dodge Hornet. Now, I’ve been a long–time Dodge hater. For many reasons. But I’m strongly guessing that they’re worse than almost anyone else in the digital realm. It got terrible fuel economy (as all Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler vehicles do) but it was an ineffective hybrid so it also had a tiny fuel tank for that bad mileage. If you can’t get a realistic 400 mile journey in a go, there’s no reason to have a gas engine at all. And I was maybe getting 260 miles between fill ups. Also, I couldn’t get into the fucking thing. So, it’s a Dodge Hornet but it’s really a crossover SUV or whatever they want to call them. In effect, quite a large vehicle. But the entryway was so full of plastic I had to move the seat well back from my driving position to get into it. And even then, I almost always hit my head. All those complaints aside, I have driven a Nissan (which, also, not the biggest fan) but it did have really solid ACC. So I’m guessing the ACC panic in the Dodge was just a Dodge thing or specific to that vehicle. When I got to the coast, I ran it through the car wash and then went and made sure all of the sensors were clean. It still did it again on the trip home with even less reason to freak out (to my knowledge and intuition on the system) but also in a much safer situation.
i was betting ford. our last good ford was a green '94 aerostar, you know the kind. we didn’t get nissan or toyota mileage (either efficiency or distance before the engine died) but it was a good minivan.
Mr. Moneybags