Cruise control was originally only found on high-end luxury cars, but now even the smallest
cars often have it fitted as standard. If you have never used cruise control before
then the controls might look confusing, but once mastered it is a useful system that will
allow us to stay relaxed when driving long distances. In this video we will show how
and when to use cruise control, so you can take advantage of this useful system.
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Cruise control is an electronic system that will allow us to set our car at a constant
speed, letting us take our foot off the accelerator pedal. The system will automatically increase
or decrease the engine power to compensate for gradients and wind. Our car has a manual
gearbox so we still have to change gears ourselves before engaging the cruise control, but on
automatic cars it will even change gears when needed.
Possibly the biggest benefit of using cruise control is that it is more relaxing for the
driver, as there is one less thing to concentrate on whilst driving. It also allows the driver
to move their legs around to stay comfortable if driving a longer journey. Cruise control
can also reduce the chance of speeding, especially in average speed camera zones where it is
easy to accidentally speed up and creep over the limit. It may even save a little fuel,
as maintaining a set speed will always use less fuel than constantly accelerating and
braking to change our speed repeatedly.
Depending on the car, the location of the controls can vary - and on this car the buttons
are on the left side of the steering wheel. There will be a button to turn the system
on, and others to set the cruising speed, increase and decrease the cruising speed,
cancel cruising, resume cruising, and turn the system off again. For full details of
how your car works, check the owners manual.
Let’s see how this works on the road. The grey icon in the car’s instruments confirms
that the cruise control system is already turned on. Once we have turned left, we accelerate
the car up to speed, and then press the set button to start cruising. The cruise control
icon turns green and confirms the speed we have set. We can now lift our foot from the
accelerator and the car will maintain the correct amount of engine power for us. We
should always keep our feet near to the pedals whilst cruising, just in case there is a hazard
that requires us to take action.
Once we are cruising we can adjust our speed by using the + and - buttons. We can tap them
to change our speed by 1mph at a time, or hold them down to change speed faster. We
can also press the accelerator pedal to manually speed the car up and then press set once more
to cruise at a higher speed.
There are several ways to cancel cruising. There is a cancel button we can press, we
can press the brake pedal, and on most cars the clutch pedal will also cancel the cruise
control. On the display the cruise icon is greyed out again to show the system is in
standby. It’s ok to leave the system on standby once used, and it will automatically
turn off when the vehicle is switched off.
If we then need to resume cruising at the previous speed, we can press the resume button
and the car will return to the speed we were last cruising at. We can see the green icon
has returned again.
There are times that it is not safe to use cruise control - such as when driving in heavy
traffic, on winding roads or on steep hills. This is because we need precise control over
our car and maintaining a constant speed could cause danger. Using cruise control is allowed
on a driving test, but unless you are very familiar with using the system it could be
an unnecessary distraction and is probably best avoided.
A new improvement to the basic cruise control system we have shown in this video is Adaptive
Cruise Control. This system is usually found on more expensive cars and will use radar
sensors to read the traffic ahead and maintain a safe distance from them - by automatically
accelerating and braking to match the speed of the traffic flow, up to the maximum speed
that we have set. Some cars will even do this from a standstill, which makes traffic jams
a breeze!
So, remember to: Choose a safe place to use cruise control
Use the controls to set your speed Keep your feet ready to react for a hazard,
and Enjoy a more relaxing journey!
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