In the recent thread on cruise controls, we got a variety of views on how we (generally) like them and (generally) find them surprisingly useful, even on crowded British ? or English - roads.
But how about the recent innovation of the ?adaptive? cruise control, intended to maintain an automatic safe separation from the vehicle in front? Too recent, perhaps, to be generally familiar; I?ve not tried one yet, but there must be some here who have. Hasn?t stopped me thinking about them, though, and I wonder if anyone here shares my misgivings, or has practical experience that shows I have nothing to worry about.
- Given what we know about satnavs, and the way some users seem to abandon their own critical faculties and do whatever the machine says, how happy would you be knowing that the driver behind was relying on ACC?
- And how confident would you be in handing over a safety-critical element of control of your vehicle to such a device, in a situation where ? by definition ? it?s too busy simply to maintain a steady speed?
- Finally, if these devices become more prevalent, how will they affect traffic flow? The ACC can position its vehicle safely relative to the one in front, but what about those on either side? There?s little enough regard now for the principle of using lanes 2 and 3 for overtaking, not cruising, and I can?t see ACC making it any better.
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Read some stories about dual/motorway driving with a ACC car in the left lane and coming up to a bend. Now, either the ACC picks up a car in the middle lane as it passes round the bend and applies the brakes, or as the car in front is now out of view it speeds up.
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As runboy says, will need more supervision than standard CC in certain situations, but less on straight roads, and how many of them are there in the UK? What happens when someone lane changes into your "gap", an emergency stop?
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What happens when someone lane changes into your "gap" an emergency stop?
In the Mercedes S-Class the car will brake and sound a warning buzzer. I tried it and it is a brilliant system. You can adjust the distance between yourself and the car in front and the car will magically maintain this distance. I wish I'd ordered it on my company car as normal cruise control feels prehistoric by comparison. Apparently it also works in stop/ start traffic but I've never tried this.
A colleague has the ACC in his E-Class and really likes it. He found it doesn't work too well on 2 way roads as periodically the car will think an approaching vehicle has pulled in front and will slow down. I don't see this as a weakness as I don't actually see the point of using it on 2 way roads.
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