Cruise Control

[Cirrus]

Changes Your World Entirely

It limits our choices somewhat but if it's a killer feature that's worth it.

I have a BMW 335 with Active Cruise Control.

It is absolutely brilliant.

I recently drove about 250 miles from the Midlands down to Islington and then across the Northern suburbs and out to Pinner - B-roads, A-roads, motorways, heavy traffic, roadworks etc. I would say the car drove itself for 95% of the time.

On faster roads it is relaxing because you are not frustrated by slower moving vehicles. It's a different mindset. You just sit back and relax like riding on a train. In city traffic it slows down, speeds up, stops, moves off - why have the hassle of doing it yourself?

You can adjust the separation. I guess it some situations it won't go as close to the next vehicle as you need to stop people pushing in but I've not experienced that so far.

There are little quirks. If you are in an economy mode, the car won't pull off as quickly as you might want so that people joining might just think you're letting them in, but a quick dab on the throttle and 313 hp closes the gap without affecting the ACC operation.

It is quite impressive at deciding whether a vehicle ahead is in your lane or is/has moved out of the way. However on sharp bends it can think the car in front has moved out of the way as it turns. Normally this corrects itself quickly but you need to monitor things.

Quite a number of people just don't like not being in control but if you're happy in your 747 to stick your autopilot on as soon as you pull the wheels up then don't worry that you won't be able to use ACC on UK roads.

As an aside: I just wish people in IT could take the incredible care to craft systems that BMW do. It's a pleasure to use artefacts that show they were bothered about you.

[d000hg]

Mine has the basic type, and it can be a PITA and if you're not careful you find yourself getting too close to the car in front as you resist turning it off. So I don't use it a whole lot.

This is my concern exactly

If touching the brake, or pressing a button is too much hassle for you, then not worth having. [...] Also, if I'm on a road and slowly catching someone in front, I'll just push the lever down a couple of times to drop 1-2mph down to their speed.

The thing is from my experience using it, tapping the button to maintain distance is more work than doing so the old fashioned way - I suppose simply because that is ingrained in automatic brain function after all these years.

Do you get as used to pressing the little buttons so that too becomes automatic?

I think I need to get a test drive of both systems somewhere they can be properly tested to see.

[Paddy]

I've never driven a car with cruise control in the UK though have had it on hire cars in the US. The cars we're looking at now mostly have it but I'm unsure how good standard CC is in the UK where roads are busy and the person in front of you who doesn't have CC is forever changing speed. Is it a PITA using classic CC here?

A few cars have adaptive CC where it will keep a fixed distance/time to the car in front and this sounds hugely superior to me though I don't know if it literally means on the motorway you set it to 70 and when you hit a jam you don't need to touch the pedals at all.

Is it worth getting the better version or is it a nice bonus but nothing more? It limits our choices somewhat but if it's a killer feature that's worth it.

Cruise control is very useful in the UK when towing caravans. Just set it to 30mph for the whole journey and Bob’s your uncle.

[LondonManc]

I have a BMW 335 with Active Cruise Control.

It is absolutely brilliant.

I recently drove about 250 miles from the Midlands down to Islington and then across the Northern suburbs and out to Pinner - B-roads, A-roads, motorways, heavy traffic, roadworks etc. I would say the car drove itself for 95% of the time.

On faster roads it is relaxing because you are not frustrated by slower moving vehicles. It's a different mindset. You just sit back and relax like riding on a train. In city traffic it slows down, speeds up, stops, moves off - why have the hassle of doing it yourself?

You can adjust the separation. I guess it some situations it won't go as close to the next vehicle as you need to stop people pushing in but I've not experienced that so far.

There are little quirks. If you are in an economy mode, the car won't pull off as quickly as you might want so that people joining might just think you're letting them in, but a quick dab on the throttle and 313 hp closes the gap without affecting the ACC operation.

It is quite impressive at deciding whether a vehicle ahead is in your lane or is/has moved out of the way. However on sharp bends it can think the car in front has moved out of the way as it turns. Normally this corrects itself quickly but you need to monitor things.

Quite a number of people just don't like not being in control but if you're happy in your 747 to stick your autopilot on as soon as you pull the wheels up then don't worry that you won't be able to use ACC on UK roads.

As an aside: I just wish people in IT could take the incredible care to craft systems that BMW do. It's a pleasure to use artefacts that show they were bothered about you.

You do know that you still need to work the indicators yourself right?

[The_Equalizer]

It's on my old Merc, but I've never been tempted to use it. My old man has it on his car (built in 1972) so it's not a new thing.

[northernladuk]

. I would say the car drove itself for 95% of the time.
.

If there was something like that for your work you might make a good contractor

[WTFH]

Do you get as used to pressing the little buttons so that too becomes automatic?

Yes, it's just part of driving on clear(ish) roads. Flick it on at 60 or 70, whatever the speed limit may be for the particular road (your honour). Tap the brake to disengage, or hit the button to slow down a bit. When the traffic clears, flick it on again and let it return to the previous speed - good fun when coming out of roadworks etc, clear motorway sitting at 40, go up to 70 without having to look at the speedo or touch the throttle.

(I've not tried adaptive, but my car has indicators which work and get used)

[eek]

Yes, it's just part of driving on clear(ish) roads. Flick it on at 60 or 70, whatever the speed limit may be for the particular road (your honour). Tap the brake to disengage, or hit the button to slow down a bit. When the traffic clears, flick it on again and let it return to the previous speed - good fun when coming out of roadworks etc, clear motorway sitting at 40, go up to 70 without having to look at the speedo or touch the throttle.

(I've not tried adaptive, but my car has indicators which work and get used)

Adaptive is the difference between me using cruise control and not using cruise control and to be blunt its brilliant. The fact I can set it to 70 and not worry about traffic slowing down in front of me makes for a far less stressful journey...

[northernladuk]

Adaptive is the difference between me using cruise control and not using cruise control and to be blunt its brilliant. The fact I can set it to 70 and not worry about traffic slowing down in front of me makes for a far less stressful journey...

Anyone forgotten to turn it on and ram the car in front yet?

[NotAllThere]

I've used both adaptive and classic cc in the UK. The adaptive is better (though when someone pulled in front of me with inches to spare, the collision detection went mental), but both take away much of the driving effort.