Only in Texas? Fact or urban myth?

Either way - it's being doing the rounds for some years.

If it's the truth, the silly sod deserves all she got - cruise control is a convenience, not a "safety" feature.

If you're hydroplaning, spinning the tires faster won't do a damned thing. What it will do is make it extremely difficult to establish and maintain control when you cease hydroplaning. And even then, you're much more likely to spin than do anything else.

The likelihood of her car having enough power to make it fly is about the same as an Audi (or a 'vette) having enough power to override its brakes -- nil.

-- Larry

It's in the owner's manual. Doesn't anyone read anymore?

Read, yes. Comprehend, not necessarily.

I have never read this in an owner's manual, it just seemed like common sense to have the cruise control off whenever driving conditions were not ideal, whether that was rain, heavy traffic, construction, or whatever. Only about half of my cars have had it, (working anyway), and I only used it on fairly long trips for the most part.

Pat

Not in Cleburne, according to one source.

Frank, that is not what I said. I stated that reading was not their strong point. There are probably as many as 6 residents who can read in that nasty collection of buildings and streets that they try to pass off as a town or city. ;-)

Pat

When driving a front wheel drive vehicle, you loose steering when the front wheels start spinning as a result of hydroplaning. If one wheel gains traction before the other while driving with the cruise control on, you can be violently jerked out of your lane. With the cruise control on, the recovery time is longer as you apply the brakes to turn it off and regain traction.

Driving a Miata or other RWD vehicle does have some benefits when experiencing hydroplaning, or when driving on icey roads, as you usually lose traction first on the driven wheels.

Same here, just common sense. I seem to be leery of mindless devices that may want to stand on the gas or come back on it when I am on ice or hydroplaning or trying to stop quickly. Still, I *thought* I had read my NA Owner's Manual. (Before reading my NC owner's manual, I plan to have a practice run with "War and Peace", but you know how that goes.)

Apparently the mentioned driver was (correctly) figuring that the speed she was driving was too much for her capabilities and she decided to let the magical device do it for her, to maintain a "safe" *consistent* speed. It seems to me she was recognizing she had difficulty keeping into control at the speed she wanted to go, and instead of slowing down as a normal person would do, she threw the ball at the mindless cruise control hoping for miracles that would prevent her from actually having to (gasp) slow down.

Then, when the mindless cruise control could not change the laws of physics lifting tires off the road when moving through water at excessive speed either, her great mind allowed her to conclude that she was flying through the air like an airplane.

The positive aspect of this story I like most is that she is living in Texas.

Leon

On one of my cars, the cruise control becomes inoperable if the wipers are at a high enough setting.