Why do so few use cruise control on the motorway?

Ricardodaforce said:
Yesterday I traveled on the M4, M50, M5, M42, and M6.

Same old story. My cruise control was set at a real 70mph. I’d overtake a car. A couple of minutes later they’d overtake me. Then I’d overtake them. At no point had my speed changed.
I saw people undertaking because of cars in lane 2 varying their speed, and cars in lane 2 speeding up so that cars in the overtaking lane then had to drop behind them, then pull back out when the lane 2 car lost speed.
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Some drivers almost seem to want to bait others. 50 or less on a national speed limit road, then race you if you try to overtake. Best not say what I think of the undertakers, though I have a tiny bit of sympathy when slow drivers hog middle and outer lanes.
 
I have adaptive CC and Limiter on my Vitara which is amazing and so clever.
Rarely use the limiter but I do like CC....
.... however, on one of our long distance drives down to Hertfordshire last year, my foot went to sleep and got all disorientated.
Now, I only use it for shorter distances and not for the "hundreds of miles between stops" journeys.
 
Thing that annoys me when driving the motorhome in CC set to 60mph, is when lorries try to overtake also doing 60mph.
Inevitably, I feel that I have to slow down to let them and the long queue of cars trying to get past the lorry past - GRRR!!!
 
mstphoto said:
Thing that annoys me when driving the motorhome in CC set to 60mph, is when lorries try to overtake also doing 60mph.
Inevitably, I feel that I have to slow down to let them and the long queue of cars trying to get past the lorry past - GRRR!!!
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In that case I would set the cruise to 62 or maybe 64mph, that will likely be an actual speed of 60 due to speedo inaccuracy, it might help keep lorries astern?
 
I set my cruise control speed based on the GPS speed shown on my Sat Nav which is almost 10% different to the car speedo.

Dave
 
onomatopoeia said:
I will use it - my car has traditional rather than adaptive - but the motorway needs to be fairly quiet as too many middle lane morons and it gets more trouble that it's worth.
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haha maybe me as a 66mph middle lane moron is why cruise control works perfect for me :-)
 
Mr Bump said:
haha maybe me as a 66mph middle lane moron is why cruise control works perfect for me :)
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You seem to have a need to demonstrate with your posts just what a moron you are.

Strange really.

Mot Edit :- Not needed towards a forum member.
 
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Boots said:
I have used cruise control for many years, but a friend once told me "Oh, I would never use it; I would forget to steer".
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It's true. I don't steer anymore, on suitable roads, I just turn on Autopilot and rest one hand on the side of the steering wheel.

In the dark, raining, it was able to drive almost 100 miles without me disengaging it or touching any other controls. Only turned it off because I was coming off the motorway.


Since my first car that had cruise control, I had been using it whenever possible. I've had OP's annoyance whenever using CC. Adaptive cruise is the only way, find a car that doesn't change speed much and just relax. Good lane centering will help relax even better.
 
WAY too easy to end up relaxing so much that your eyes close.
 
Nod said:
WAY too easy to end up relaxing so much that your eyes close.
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All this auto stuff is risky, for that very reason.
Its a shame that people are moving away from a proper driving experience, in favour of letting the car do it for you :(
 
Unfortunately, the above scenario isn't unknown. It's apparently easy to fool Tesla's autopilot into believing you have a hand on the wheel too.
 
I think one problem is that there's no limit to the stupid things people will do.
 
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Nod said:
It's apparently easy to fool Tesla's autopilot into believing you have a hand on the wheel too.
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And it seems that it was easy to fool a Tesla, that, that 50 foot artic with a white trailer, wasn't there .... Ooops!
 
Plane autopilot doesn't allow pilots to completely switch off, it only saves pilots from minor corrections and gives a smoother ride.
Same with cars. No more constant tiny steering corrections, no more constantly adjusting accelerator to maintain speed. Less attention is needed on the speedo and lane markings. More attention can be watching other cars.

I notice waaaay more cars drifting in their lane when I have AP turned on. Same as people driving with CC notice other cars cannot maintain speed.
 
wyx087 said:
Same with cars. No more constant tiny steering corrections, no more constantly adjusting accelerator to maintain speed. Less attention is needed on the speedo and lane markings.
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Yep It's pretty obvious that a lot of people can't actually drive these days, and need a lot of gizmos to help them.
That's all well and good, until they malfunction.
 
Cobra said:
Yep It's pretty obvious that a lot of people can't actually drive these days, and need a lot of gizmos to help them.
That's all well and good, until they malfunction.
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And what happens when a driver malfunctions?
 
It's obvious there's even more people who aren't paying enough attention to the road. I'd rather have the car to be more active in keeping them in their lanes.

There's even more people who cannot drive at constant speed and use cars around them as guide. I'd rather they use CC.

Most drivers think they are above average drivers.........
 
L320Rio said:
And what happens when a driver malfunctions?
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There is a lot of those too.
even with both hands on the wheel and working the pedals.

wyx087 said:
Most drivers think they are above average drivers.........
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Above average or not, Over the years I have driven ( legally) just about every vehicle its legal to drive on the UK roads.
I think I have a pretty good handle on how to drive safely, what ever I was in.

There is no way in this lifetime I would trust a vehicle to make any decisions for me.
 
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This discussion has got me thinking about automatic braking.

Perhaps it's not yet something to rely on but it might be a good thing to have if one ever got distracted.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
This discussion has got me thinking about automatic braking.

Perhaps it's not yet something to rely on but it might be a good thing to have if one ever got distracted.
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My Skoda has it already, albeit emergency braking only.
 
I remember watching demonstrations of (IIRC) Volvo's automatic emergency braking. It didn't hit the wall quite as hard as it did completely unbraked...
 
Nod said:
I remember watching demonstrations of (IIRC) Volvo's automatic emergency braking. It didn't hit the wall quite as hard as it did completely unbraked...
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In reverse at normal speeds it would stop the car hitting a wall. I'm not going to test the forward version voluntarily. ;)
 
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AndrewFlannigan said:
about automatic braking.

Perhaps it's not yet something to rely on
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Yes, AEB is not a collision prevention system, it's a collision mitigation system where its aim is to minimise impact forces. So it's never intended to be relied on.

This is the problem with all assistance systems. People think the decisions will be made by the vehicle. No, the aim of assistance systems is (just like plane autopilot) reduce operator workload. In the simplest form, CC reduces operator workload by maintaining speed.
 
Cobra said:
And it seems that it was easy to fool a Tesla, that, that 50 foot artic with a white trailer, wasn't there .... Ooops!
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The other side of that coin . . . My eldest son had a bad crash on the motorway when a HGV drifted into his lane, over £60K damage to his car. BUT his car saw it coming, braked hard and made it far less bad. The driver behind him stopped and commented that his speed of reaction was amazing, in fact the car had taken action before he even say what was happening.

Cobra said:
Above average or not, Over the years I have driven ( legally) just about every vehicle its legal to drive on the UK roads.
I think I have a pretty good handle on how to drive safely, what ever I was in.
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Me too, everything except a bus.
There was a news item on the TV yesterday, with footage of a bad motorbike crash. Another motorcyclist said that car drivers need to be more aware, which is fair comment. But I think that the main problem is that times have changed so much, with the average driver knowing nothing about cars and over-relying on technology.
People of my age used to progress from a bike to a moped, then a motorbike, then a motorbike combination when kids came along, and finally to a car. This experience makes us much more aware.
 
wyx087 said:
It's obvious there's even more people who aren't paying enough attention to the road. I'd rather have the car to be more active in keeping them in their lanes.

There's even more people who cannot drive at constant speed and use cars around them as guide. I'd rather they use CC.

Most drivers think they are above average drivers.........
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One of the issues we have is that a licence is almost seen as a right.

In the law we have the phrase "the minimum standard expected of a competent and careful driver". As you note above, there are plenty of people out there on the roads that are not really competent or careful but think they are. So, what is the minimum standard expected?

More often than not people are judged and sentenced by other motorists. So a "there but for the grace of god go I" mindset and a more lenient approach to guilt and sentencing.
 
Garry Edwards said:
But I think that the main problem is that times have changed so much, with the average driver knowing nothing about cars and over-relying on technology.
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Absolutely.

Garry Edwards said:
People of my age used to progress from a bike to a moped, then a motorbike, then a motorbike combination when kids came along, and finally to a car. This experience makes us much more aware.
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We are of a similar age, although I "skipped" the Combo stage, that's pretty much me as well.
The highlighted bit, is pretty my my point too, and that's the bit that mostly worries me, the lack of, in this day and age.

wyx087 said:
People think the decisions will be made by the vehicle.
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Again, another point that bothers me.
People rely on technology / automation far too much.
 
Cobra said:
Again, another point that bothers me.
People rely on technology / automation far too much.
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Can't argue with that. The current problem is that, this is assistance technology, full responsibility remains with driver. Problem is, as always, people. Camera or IR eye tracking isn't enough.

When I drive with AP turned on, physical workload is greatly reduced (no need for feet input, no need for minor steering adjustment to keep in lane). I still check my surroundings and validate the car's visualisation. My hand stays on the wheel and ready to take over at any time. I am fully responsible to what happens, it's only an assistance tech.

The workload is different in a good way. No more manual labour, more of supervisory role.
 
wyx087 said:
I am fully responsible to what happens, it's only an assistance tech.
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Sadly I feel that far to many people won't / don't see it that way.

wyx087 said:
No more manual labour, more of supervisory role.
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Those that can do, those that can't supervise :D
(I'm just teasing)
 
I've just finished driving from Oxfordshire to Folkestone. There were several individuals driving at around an indicated 60mph in the centre lane of the M40, M25 and M20. On occasion they caused noticeable bunching of traffic around them, slowing the flow and increasing likelihood of accidents.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I've just finished driving from Oxfordshire to Folkestone. There were several individuals driving at around an indicated 60mph in the centre lane of the M40, M25 and M20. On occasion they caused noticeable bunching of traffic around them, slowing the flow and increasing likelihood of accidents.
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It is just crazy isn’t it. People have no self awareness of the effect their poor driving has.
 
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