Cruise control is an essential feature in a daily driven car.
Dylan Bowerman
I love the cruise control feature on my car. I use it nearly every time I drive.
It’s unsafe!
No, it’s not.
People only think it’s unsafe because they don’t want to pay attention to the road. Cruise control is not an excuse to stop doing any part of the driver’s job, including controlling the speed. If a driver wants to treat the cruise control as a self-driving button and be less attentive and less aware of their surroundings as a result, then they are the safety issue, not the cruise control.
As with any Driver Assistance Technology, it is up to the driver to remain attentive. Cruise control, however, is not a safety device; its presence will not directly make your drive more safe. The driver must be aware of the vehicle’s speed and of any obstacles that may require the vehicle to slow down, so they can override the cruise control system by braking. Notably, this is always the case; the driver always has this task. Using cruise control does not add any task to the driver that they didn’t already have.
It takes away control!
No, it doesn’t.
We know that the driver has complete control of the car because any action that the driver would take without cruise control on will still work exactly as expected with cruise control on. The driver can still steer, accelerate, and brake as they normally would, to respond to an evolving environment.
What’s the advantage?
I’m so glad you asked!
- The driver can take their foot off the accelerator pedal, reducing physical fatigue during extended drives. Physical fatigue can be both a distraction and a cause for delayed reaction.
- The driver can hover their foot over the brake pedal during normal driving if they choose, which will decrease their reaction time to sudden changes by nearly eliminating the time it takes their foot to travel between the accelerator and the brake. This time is already small, yes, but fractions of a second will help.
- The driver can keep their eyes on the road more, as they will not have to check the speedometer to ensure they are traveling at the desired speed, because their speed will be constant while no pedals are depressed. The human foot is not an instrument of incredible precision, and we would not be very good at reaching our desired speed with any accuracy without looking regularly at the speedometer. This extra time looking at the road can decrease a driver’s reaction time to a changing environment.