I'm going to assume most of the users here drive cars and/or trucks with cruise control, or have driven them in the past. Do you use it, and if so how often?


In my case, I rarely if ever use mine. I find it boring at best, and risky at worst.

I have driven vehicles with it, and I would only use it when traveling long distances.

My Chevrolet pickup has "electronic speed control". The feature was primarily called electronic speed control on the pickups/utilities before the "cruise control" name took over. It was always bundled with the infinitely-variable windshield wipers. Note that cruise was still used on the control wand.

See here:


I never drive the pickup far enough to the electronic speed control.

My only Cruise Control-experiences I've made in 1993, at my autodriveway-trip across the USA. http://imageshack.us/g/33/img3510i.jpg/

And the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country, we had at our East Coast-tip in 2008, had a CC, too, my my wife drove it, not me.





In Germany Cruise Control-systems are not very common, usually only at bigger premium class cars. Or -surely- at US cars.
For a long time I thought, that it's only possible at cars with automatic transmission, but this was not correct. Also cars with stick shift-gearing have that, for example the 2000 Opel Astra G of my parents-in-law.
Though it's not always needed here, because of the traffic situation, it's a comfortable extra. It avoids pain - when I'm driving long distances, consitently on the Autobahn, after ca.500 km I got a strong pain in my right knee.
It ws really bad on the way back from my Sweden-trip in 1999, the 1500 km back home I've made with just one overnight stay after 1000 km at my grandmother nearby Flensburg. 200 km later, around Bremen (300 km before home), I've felt the pain coming. In Münster, 100 km further, I had problems to move the leg. And at home in Dortmund, where I lived back then, it was so bd, that I couldn't take the 5 steps up to my apartment. I've climbed upwards like a 90-year-old grandfather, dragging myself at the handrail.


At the trip in 1993, the redmetallic Buick was really lame, but the most comfortable to drive with Cruise Control. I could put my legs on the dashboard. Which has caused irritated views from the other drivers.

But a Cruise Control can be dangerous, too. It redcuces the driver's attention and supports drowsiness.

Like Ingo says it's not particularly common in Europe. I usually tend to drive small or medium sized cars which very rarely have it fitted.

That said, I like it as an idea as I'm pretty lazy so it would definitely auit me on longer journeys. I especially like the new radar guided systems that stop you having crashes if you get distracted. I can't really comment on it beyond that as I haven't really tried it so don't know how it 'feels' to drive with Cruise Control on. I've read some commentaries where people have suggested that it feels different but as I say I don't know.

A more cynical person than I might suggest that it is part of the creeping move towards increased automation of cars where we will end up passengers in our own cars for good or for ill.

I take it has been particularly commonplace in the US for a long time?

I drove a 2008-model Honda Civic Type-R which had cruise-control. I even tried it for a few moments on the highway, I didn't like it much, though.

They have, and for a while they've been optional. Unless I'm mistaken, they're standard nowadays. And this isn't just from Ford, GM, and Chrysler. The imports add them too, in fact I really don't know of any car manufacturer that doesn't at least offer cruise control. If you've read my profile, you'd realize my car is a 12-year-old Honda Accord, and that has it. My 1991 Toyota Corolla had it, but my '97 Corolla didn't.

I use it almost every time I drive our family car (2000 Chrysler Voyager), especially on the motorway. It's more comfortable when you don't have to keep your foot on the throttle all the time, considering the Chrysler's awful driving position (much more upright than I'm used to with other cars I've driven).

I do not have it, but I would use it on highways if I had it.

My Volvo S40 get it but I'm with Neptune, only for long distances. But even in that case, it's not the same drive in a congested highway to Valencia-Barcelona (some risk to use it, I think) than in the long and straights higways of La Mancha (center-south, spain) or Castile (center north, spain).

As far as I'm concerned I can live without such fancy. Save it for the Rolls-Royce's and Cadilac's. I didn't even know how to use it up until 2010 or so when I was fooling around with it in my mother's car. It doesn't work in my Bronco.
The only luxury I want is my car is a CD player.

I find it indispensable when driving on a highway for a long time (traffic permitting...)
Also I think it's one of the coolest-named car features

At the incredible lame VW T3 Transporters (55 hp Diesel, max.speed 103 km/h), which were in use at my Bundeswehr-service-time 20 years ago, I've used on long Autobahn-trips the mechanical Cruise Control, as invented by the WWII-soldiers in the Russian steppe: a brick on the gas pedal. It worked fine.

Some people have modified their throttle linkages with like a knob that when you turn it it hold the throttle at where ever it's at. Kinda an oldschool way of doing it.

it's just one more step in taking out the most dangerous component, the driver.