jrmckinley

I'm defining "dynamic cruise" as cruise control that monitors the distance between your car and the one in front of it.

I don't use cruise control all that much, and neither of my prior vehicles (2010 LX and 2010 LS) had dynamic cruise. Now, I have a 2021 QX80 that I use on road trips and it has dynamic cruise. I understand the concept and think fundamentally it is good... except when people don't actively take over and drive and just leave the car on dynamic cruise.

I do a decent amount of highway driving (mostly on 95 in FL), and I've started to pay more attention as to what causes a lot of "bunching up" of traffic. And I'm convinced it's a lot of people keeping dynamic cruise on and just staying in their lane - instead of turning it off and finding a way to get around a vehicle that they need to/should pass. Even with my QX80 set to give me the "least" amount of distance between me and a car in front of me, I know it would be annoying to be behind me if I were to leave it on. And if you watch what happens if a car gets annoyed and gets in front of a car that is using dynamic cruise, that car is now forced to brake in order to create the appropriate amount of distance the driver has set. It's like an unnecessary brake-check which then causes a chain reaction of braking all through traffic.

When you have 4 or 5 lanes of traffic moving 75-90mph and lots of people clearly using dynamic cruise, I think it's highly problematic. Am I alone here?

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

i get where you're coming from but i'm a giant fan of adaptive cruise and use if every day. (my community exits onto a 4 lane highway into town.)

anyone using adaptive cruise on a 3 lane a side highway should NOT be in the left lane unless they've decided they alone will dictate what the fastest any traffic should go. if that's not 'fast' then as you say, people are going to tailgate, then go around, then go back in front, rinse, and repeat.

so i don't think it's the feature, but more unaware / uncaring drivers using it.

and a 'decent amount' of driving on i-95 in florida will drive anyone nuts.

Striker223

I use it as my limiter, I set it to 7.5 over limit so when I'm not "driving" or near other cars I don't have to manually mind my speed. Near other cars I take over as needed or if someone is in the correct lane and doing a good pace I tap up to 90 and follow them.

jrmckinley

I agree - I think fundamentally the tech does its job. The drivers who just leave it on and stay in their lane (even if it's the middle lane) are causing the issue, and then I think it compounds because those drivers refuse to turn off the dynamic cruise and someone jumps in front of them and their car slows down as a result of needing to keep proper distance behind that car.

Logicallychallenged

This dynamic cruise is a backwards feature that makes driving more frustrating for the person using it as well as all others around.

However, it is fun to play games with a new car and slow them down by pulling in front of them if they are messing up traffic.

I had a rental that had it, and after the first thirty minutes of using it I could not use it any longer as it is unnatural in its operation. You can not get close enough to the car or semi in front of you to pull out without the car slowing down for you unexpectedly.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

ok then.

why would you want to do this?

you know you can adjust the distance between the car you're driving and the one in front. if shortest distance isn't close enough for you then you must like bad tailgating.

tex2670

I can't agree. I think adaptive cruise is far and away superior to standard cruise. Particularly when I'm traveling the I-95 corridor between Wash/Balt/Phila/NYC/Boston; typical cruise has to constantly be turned on and off.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

completely agree.

on major roads my hyundai also allows hands off wheel driving for minutes at a time (highway driving assist feature) and it steers perfectly. big help in making long drives less draining.

SW17LS

For me it depends on the road. On a road where there is a lot of traffic and you have to move around cars and change lanes then it annoys me. On a more sparsely populated road I absolutely love it.

For me adding lane centering to it made a huge difference in my appreciation of it. On a long trip having the car do the work of keeping the car in the center of the lane and minding your speed takes a lot of the stress of driving off of your shoulders.

jrmckinley

On a sparsely populated road, what difference would it provide compared to traditional (old school) cruise control?

SW17LS

The difference is that you know when you do come up on somebody its going to react, it takes that level of attention off of your shoulders which reduces your fatigue. Plus in my car it does 80% of the driving in that situation

I also love it in very slow traffic because it just drives along by itself really. Where it annoys me is when I can be doing 75-80 but that involves moving around people some and it drags my speed down.

jrmckinley

Got it. Interesting a couple/few people have pointed out some level of driving fatigue. I don't experience that, and I've been a road warrior doing 50-60k miles/year (luckily not anymore). I hardly ever use cruise control of any sort. I can see how it helps, I just have always preferred to be in complete control. On my Tesla, I only use AutoPilot to show people, or to see how much it's improved after an update, or if I've had a couple of drinks.

JDR76

Honestly, I would never again purchase a car without it. All three of my vehicles have it, and I use it in all three.

I don't really like to use it in super busy traffic, but out in the open with just moderate to light traffic, I really love it. I love how it'll just adjust as you hit little pockets of cars or vehicles exiting or entering the freeway.

I don't get the impression that most of the cars around me are using it, especially in high traffic.

SW17LS

I never realized the impact it had until I had a car with it, and also have a car without it.

GFerg

I dont find DCC annoying at all. When I had to commute to my office I would use DCC daily. Kia/Hyundai/Genesis system is amazing in heavy stop and go highway traffic. Turn it on and let it do its thing. It even brakes and slows for sweeping turns to keep passengers comfortable. I love it on the highway in pretty much any rate of traffic.

I would sometimes play around with the system in the city just to see how it would react and its fine if there is a car in front of me, but not recommended for obvious reasons. Its clearly not built for that.