Exactly. In spite of Snopes claiming it is true, it isn't. The CC will maintain the drive wheel speed that is set. If the car loses some speed while hydroplaning, the drive wheels will still be going the set speed and will accelerate the car back _to that speed_ when traction is regained. If, for example, you were cruising 60 before hydroplaning, you will accelerte back up to 60 after it. That is all. Hardly "like an airplane". Basically. It's BS.
Yes, best to dturn it off in heavy rain but not for that idiot reason.
Interesting, dramatic story. You mean during all the time you were fighting off the instability-right/left etc- you never tapped the brakes? Would have been a lot faster and simpler than playing around with the cruise control function lever. MLD
If you can't maintain your attention while using CC, then you shouldn't be driving at all. CC is a valuable tool, gets better mileage than you do and maintains a set speed far better than any 'manual' driver. Nothing is more annoying than following someone down the road who is not maintaining a set speed.
No! Tapping the brake when the car is already out of control could of made the situation worse. I consciously bypassed the brake and went directly for the switch.
There are no modern vehicles available (that I know of) that do not have the usual caveates regarding cruise control operation in the owners manual... If there is a defect in the car, it is in the fact that it will allow itself to be driven by someone unfamiliar with the contents of the owners manual.
What most people need to realize is that a car is a piece of machinery... nnothing more - nothing less. Operate it unsafely or operate it without exercising due care and attention (like, maybe, detereorating road conditions) can and will have life altering consequences. The sooner people return to accepting the reponsibility for their own actions or omissions......
Every time they make something more idiot proof, we cultivate a "better" breed of idiot...
I believe that in America you still have to kill someone to be a murderer, and be found guilty in a court of law.
Yours is very flawed logic. It's like saying a gun put itself in someones hand and cocked and fired itself. A cruise control does not set itself.
As for the cruise control causing a loss of control, what you described was driver error. The driver was not familiar with the equipment and used it improperly. I might wonder if that driver knows not to use cruise control in hilly or mountainous country... or on snow and ice (which are nothing more than frozen percipitation.
Before considering an idea like doing away with something, be it cruise control or guns or whatever, consider this.... approximately 2 MILLION people are killed on the nations roadways every yea, yet nobody calls to do away with them. Guns kill far less and people want to do away with them. It boils down to people only want to do away with what does not impact them personally.
On a long trip, I set the cruise control and flow with the pack, but I drive defensively and maintain my clearances, keep my eyes roving, and concentrate on driving.... keeping distractions like conversation to a minimum. I don't use the cell phone, or text, or use a laptop, etc.
In 41 years of driving, I've had two citations and one accident which was my fault for driving to fast for conditions and hitting black ice on an overpass. I've driven in all kinds of traffic (here and abroad) under all manner of conditions.... with and without cruise control. I always make it a point to know my vehicle, especially where the controls are so I don't have to be distracted from the business of driving.
Must have grabbed the wrong figure. Still, the concept is the same. Far mor deaths occur on the highways and byways , yet nobody calls for outlawing vehicles.
I think the combination of cruise control and hydroplaning is risky, but the customary explanation of *why* is just a bit off the mark.
Here's what gets me. Barring some completely batso level of GPS integration, cruise control has no idea how fast you are going. All it knows is how fast you *ought* to be going, based on RPM. Unless I'm missing something, If RPM goes up (as when your drive wheels are not getting traction regardless of the reason), then it ought to infer that speed has increased, and close the throttle to lower your (fictitious) speed, right?
What I *am* willing to believe is that if the cruise control doesn't have time to trip off before you're done with the hydroplaning or other traction loss, your tires bite down unexpectedly and propel you along whatever vector the hydroplaning left you on. This is perhaps a lot more likely with cruise control than with a well educated right foot.
If further traction is iffy and control is too -- and if, like most drivers, your knowledge of how to recover from a skid is largely theoretical and not broached since Driver's Ed -- this could get interesting rapidly, especially in traffic. For that matter, hydroplaning can be a rude surprise even if you are pretty good in the chair. If you can't avoid it, best to avoid worsening it.
--Joe, who prefers being more involved in the driving experience anyway and therefore seldom uses cruise control
It's not based on RPM because RPM is ambiguous. 2200 RPM in first gear is drastically sidderent than 2200 RPM in 6th gear.
The speed sensor is based on the rotation of the drive wheels or something directly connected to them, e.g. the output shaft of the transmission. From this as well as the known parameters of wheel and tire diameter, the cruise control can estimate your speed - IFF the drive wheels have full traction.
That's the logical assumption. However, the PID algorithms that alter engine speed in response to the delta between the desired ground speed and the actual ground speed is designed to respond SLOWLY and GENTLY because the automakers don't want to alarm Grandpa. If the CC is too slow to react, you could still spin out of control before the CC has time to reduce the throttle setting.
Yeah, my computer gets absentminded as the night wears on. It should have written what I meant, which was "RPM of the drive wheels," instead of merely what I typed.
Anyway, my recollections of the couple of times I've hydroplaned are that the car feels like it's in the hands of God, and He has a strange sense of humor. Managed to slow down a bit first, hit the standing water square-on, and avoid drastic control inputs; it came out okay. Some situations, like "black ice" in its favorite natural habitat on certain curves, can be not so good...
It probably helps to have at least halfway appropriate tires with a decent amount of tread still on 'em. For sure, people with the air showing through their tires, or who get caught in the rainy season (or a cloudburst) with radical dry-road performance rubber, can really put on a show.
One of my most hair raising memories is the day I left Sault Ste Marie Mich on leave headed for Spokane. Early in morning nice day and I was making tracks around 65 on bare pavement. Entered a looonnng right hand bend, totally shaded and saw the black ice. "Self", says I, "don't touch ANYTHNG, don't let off the gas, don't touch the brake!" I think the cheek pinch lines were still on the seat covers when I traded it.
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