Seriously. I’ve never, in my entire 30-year driving life, ever wanted to turn off my cruise control. Cancel, yes. Off, no. Heck, turning it on is one more bothersome step before I get to pedal-less driving Nirvana. Not to mention the times (because I between work and home I drive three different cars with the cruise controls in different locations) where I’ve accidentally turned the cruise completely off. Then, instead of just hitting resume, I have to get back up to speed manually and reset the cruise (once I’ve found the button to turn the darn thing on again).
So, really, can someone give me a real answer (possibly technical) as to why it is possible to turn a cruise control completely on or off?
Not to mention the times (because I between work and home I drive three different cars with the cruise controls in different locations) where I've accidentally turned the cruise completely off
If you can accidentally turn it off then you don’t want someone to accidentally to turn it ON. Cruise control is nice when on long trips…but NOT for commute traffic around big cities. Boston is the worse I’ve driven in…but I’m sure there are many just as bad.
The cruise on our Toyota’s - I guess it’s possible to turn them off and on. But not likely. Wifes 87 and 96 Accord…it was very difficult to turn it off accidentally…it was located on the dash.
Controlling engine speed with the accelerator pedal never seemed very taxing to me. I am amazed at drivers who feel compelled to weave through traffic and tailgate cars in their efforts to keep their cruise locked in.
I would not want a cruise control that you couldn’t turn off. It’s for safety. There are times that cruise control is not needed and in those times…I want the cruise control off.
If you were teaching someone to drive, you might want the cruise control to be off when driving in the city after getting off the highway to prevent accidental acceleration.
I use the on/off button. The only time I use the cancel button is when I expect to resume the same speed again after needing to slow for a bit. I could just tap the brakes but when I see someone flash their brake lights on the freeway, that to me is a warning that a hazard is ahead so I never tap the brakes unless no one is around in back of me. I’ve got auto on lights too but have an on/off switch for them.
circuitsmith wrote:
I would hope that the cruise on/off button cuts power to the cruise circuitry in a fail-safe way, in case there’s a malfunction.
Now that you mention it, I vaguely recall a discussion here where a sticking accelerate button was suspected. With a problem like that, it would be good to keep the cruise control turned off until it was fixed.
Why does my radio have an off button? Never in my 30 years of driving have I wanted to turn off the music. I just use the volume control to turn it down.
@"Rod_Knox, yes, newer semis have CC. However, on governed trucks the top speed cruising is usually one or two MPH slower than the truck’s top governed speed.
I use the off switch a lot when I use cruise control. Also, I find CC very handy for obeying school zone and speed trap community speed limits without accidently going over, not just for long freeway trips.
If the cruise control was always on and ready to respond to a switch input when someone bumps the resume while making a turn or holds the accelerate button while searching for the lit cigarette in their lap panic will set in.