I was pulling off the A1M cruise set to 83ish ( a sharpish rh bend ) onto the A168 yesterday and the traction control light flickered for five or ssix seconds but the cruise remained set. Is this right? I expected the car to disengage the cruise setting.
cruise and electronic stability
- Thread starter Finisterre
- Start date
In fairness, I think I'd expect the driver to disengage the cruise control when entering an exit road at that speed, even if it was just a quick dab of the brakes 
I'm not sure the cruise would disengage just because you are going round a corner and the traction control kicks in - if the cruise disengaged then you would change speed unexpectedly, weight distribution would change and you could lose control of the car...
I'm not sure the cruise would disengage just because you are going round a corner and the traction control kicks in - if the cruise disengaged then you would change speed unexpectedly, weight distribution would change and you could lose control of the car...
thanks
malibudave
Member
I agree, cruise will only disengage when requested by the driver. However if there is a fault with the ESP it should not be possible to engage cruise in the first place.
srhutch said:domsz4 said:
Surely the fact you are going at a constant speed without you foot on the gas is a good enough indicator
yeah it is but in all the other cars ive had there was a little light there to remind you. i think it just works a little different than i would expect and itsa more likely to be me than it not working.
You're not alone. Many have thought this rather odd at first. After a while, I think everyone comes to the realisation that the little light is rather silly. If you don't know the cruise is on, you aren't paying enough attention and shouldn't be driving.domsz4 said:
There is one situation I find slightly annoying, though I'm not sure the little light would help. It appears the cruise will disengage if you override the set speed with the accelerator for a long enough period of time. This always happens on motorways (interstates actually) where the set speed is just a bit faster than some large vehicle. Not wanting to spend an eternity next to a large vehicle, I accelerate just a bit with the pedal, not wishing to upset the set speed. Not wanting to draw attention of police, it still takes a while to get some distance on the other vehicle. I then pull back into the slow lane and let the cruise take over again. Then I realise the large vehicle is gaining on me and that the cruise has disengaged. I can only imagine what the other driver must be thinking of me.
1066 Country
NEVER drive with cruise on if there's a hefty bit of surface water or heavy rain.
Not sure if these were the conditions though have been told if the car gets slowed on water with cruise on, should tyres aquaplane the car's brain goes I'm not going fast enough, let's give it some more beans spinning the aquaplaned tyre(s) and whoah, nasty surprise.
Glad all ended well
Not sure if these were the conditions though have been told if the car gets slowed on water with cruise on, should tyres aquaplane the car's brain goes I'm not going fast enough, let's give it some more beans spinning the aquaplaned tyre(s) and whoah, nasty surprise.
Glad all ended well
it was disconcerting rather than dangerous. The bend is dual carriageway and a filter rather than a junction. I use the road frequently and I was surprised by the traction light. I think it is the first time it has ever come on on that bend and it won't have been the fastest pass ever. I even stopped to test my tyre pressures because I couldn't understand the traction action.
Jembo said:
Sorry Jem, this is not correct - there was a thread on this not so long ago. The traction control is smart enough to know that you are aquaplaning anyway. But if you do plane and lose traction then the wheels will spin faster anyway, and the traction control will slow them down. Can't find the thread right now though, sorry - as there were a couple of interesting links
This illustrates the conundrum I have with electronic nannies perfectly. On one hand, people in general are idiots when it comes to driving. We cannot expect the average person to know things (pre-nanny era) like do not engage cruise when traction is impaired. Thus we create nannies to protect us from our stupidity by managing traction for us. How can that be bad?Bing said:Jembo said:
Sorry Jem, this is not correct - there was a thread on this not so long ago. The traction control is smart enough to know that you are aquaplaning anyway. But if you do plane and lose traction then the wheels will spin faster anyway, and the traction control will slow them down. Can't find the thread right now though, sorry - as there were a couple of interesting links
Becaue it fosters a mind set of not needing to learn how to drive, the car will protect us. So we, as a society, become even stupider and more complacent, unable to discern dangers to ourselves, always expecting some safety device to intervene when we show poor judgement. As we get more unable to discern danger, we create more nannies for protection, it's a viscous circle. Do I want to go back to no DSC and ABS days? Yes, sort of, but not really. I recognise the benefits, but I don't have to like it.
Anyway, I would really rather people drive as though nannies did not exist, but allow them to intervene when our judgement lapses. So lets exercise our brains and disengage cruise when traction is impaired, even though technically it is no longer necessary.
bcworkz said:
I know exactly what you mean.
I don't have cruise (yet), but I get what you are saying as when I have had cruise in the past and on the wife's car, simple common sense makes me want to be in more control of the car in adverse conditions, so no cruise on. And I learnt to drive in a pre-nanny era. But the lektroniks is quite smart
Bing said:Jembo said:
Sorry Jem, this is not correct - there was a thread on this not so long ago. The traction control is smart enough to know that you are aquaplaning anyway. But if you do plane and lose traction then the wheels will spin faster anyway, and the traction control will slow them down. Can't find the thread right now though, sorry - as there were a couple of interesting links
I stand corrected then Bing & agree with your cotton wool comments bcworkz. though there's been a few times I've seen the technology kick in to give an extra helping hand on a few dodgy situations.