[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by Holyghost

Just came back from 800KM Bangalore-Hubli-Bangalore round trip this week. More than 400KMs were driven with Cruise control. Another 100-150KMs were driven without Cruise because I got bored and sleepy by maintaining the legal speeds on Cruise Control and needed some adrenaline rush. Only the remaining 200-250 KM were the only place were the traffic did allow Cruise Control usage. Not sure why people find it useless when we have GQs and other equally good highways.

Fully agree with you. I use cruise control almost daily in Delhi NCR. I just did Delhi to Lucknow trip last week and over 90% of the trip was on cruise control. Even during my just completed Delhi to Punjab trip this week, I used CC for at least 30 to 40% of the drive. After one has been driving for say an hour, it is great to be able to use CC even for a couple of minutes as it rests your foot. Even when I lived in the US, CC wasn't used non stop. One always had to reset it every few minutes and it is similar in India on main highways except during very crowded times. Those two to five kms that you can manage on CC really help rest your foot. For me this is an absolutely essential feature. Automatic radar based cruise control is even better of course.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

You have mentioned that you thought you had switched off CC, so it's your mistake. You should have been aware of where your wheels were.

What I tried to highlight is why provide a feature in a complicated way, CC is a great feature, but there are better methods to make these features easy to use.
This is my personal opinion.

[meetgds]

Originally Posted by ashish2135

Next is:
1. Intermittent wiper speed (again Hyundai feature)

I almost always set my wiper speed to intermittent! It makes sure the windscreen is clear and at the same time causes minimal distraction.

[batterylow]

Originally Posted by deehunk

What I tried to highlight is why provide a feature in a complicated way, CC is a great feature, but there are better methods to make these features easy to use.
This is my personal opinion.

The deactivation condition for CC is brake pedal actuation.

I wonder how it can be made any more simple?

As to your query on why CC is a bit complex, the extra sequence to activate CC is for safety purpose so that the driver doesn't inadvertently activate CC with a single button press.

[bhavik.1991]

I wholeheartedly welcome every tiny feature in cars. I try to make most out of them however one feature I have never used in my Jetta is 'disable passenger airbag'. Though I drive alone more than 50% of the time, I simply don't find it's worth to risk it...just in case I forgot to enable it when a passenger in on board.

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by bhavik.1991

I wholeheartedly welcome every tiny feature in cars. I try to make most out of them however one feature I have never used in my Jetta is 'disable passenger airbag'. Though I drive alone more than 50% of the time, I simply don't find it's worth to risk it...just in case I forgot to enable it when a passenger in on board.

Perhaps they can make it better by activating it again once the passenger side seat belt is used. I am tempted to even say that activate/deactivate it depending on the seat belt, but then, you know there might be people who might want the airbags but not the seat belts

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by ashish2135

Some of the new hyundais have a feature to control the brightness of the instrument cluster. I think it is one of the useless features to have.
Next is:
1. Intermittent wiper speed (again Hyundai feature)
2. headlight leveller

Originally Posted by blackasta

Intermittent wiper is very useful in light drizzle - so much so, that we have an entire thread (DIY: Adding "variable intermittent wipers" to the Celerio & other Marutis) .....

Like blackasta has mentioned, the intermittent wiper is one of the most useful features in a car. My first generation Ford Figo has an intermittent wipe with 6 adjustable speeds and believe me, I use almost all the speeds during rains, depending on the intensity. It's a boon to avoid that wiper screech.
Headlight leveler is not a feature, but a mandatory requirement by the law. The usage is clearly mentioned in the user manual, which as usual with many other things, is conveniently ignored by majority of users.
Cluster brightness control helps in adjusting the intensity of the cluster illumination and this is a boon, especially for people who are sensitive to light (too much difference between cluster illumination and ambient light), which actually causes a lot of fatigue during night driving.

[bhavik.1991]

Originally Posted by prakash_ajp

Perhaps they can make it better by activating it again once the passenger side seat belt is used.

Knowing the attention to details Germans give to the car, they might have already implemented it. I haven't checked it; will give it a try.

[Mr.Boss]

Except for some fancy stuffs like instrument cluster back-light variable colors I don't find any of the features to be useless. I do agree a lot of features are used less or sometimes never used but those were added only because of the market need.

PS: Feel sorry for most of the members here who label themselves as 'petrol-heads' but lack some vital organ inside the head to understand what these features are and their necessity.

Originally Posted by batterylow

I wonder how it can be made any more simple?

Sync the CC with mind (if available) of the driver and passenger, activate / deactivate / control the speeds based on majority of the opinion. This could avoid even when driver fell asleep. Simple and safety oriented.

[kingshukt]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

This keyless push start is a glaring example of applying technology where its not needed at all. A bit like motorized toothbrushes.

I have severe mothpain. I cannot do without motorised toothbrushes. As somebody said - To each his own

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by AKTRACK

If one goes by the usage, I think the low beam is pretty useless as well. I use a combination of both during highway driving at night but most of the folks, whether required or not, keep it on high. Even people who want to drive in low beam are forced to use the high beam because of the oncoming glare.

How does one disagree with a particular post? While a 'Thanks' may convey the meaning that either one is thankful, happy, in agreement etc. how could one say that they disagree without having to type a long text such as this one?


Low beam has its uses from a safety point of view. Please do not use high beams all the time. I am sure many TBHPians here would agree with me.

[GTO]

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[AKTRACK]

Originally Posted by blackasta

Surely you must be kidding - it's the low beam that

Originally Posted by msdivy

Actually, I drive on low beam pretty much all the time, both in city and highways and switch to high beam only on rare occasions.

Originally Posted by swissknife

How does one disagree with a particular post? While a 'Thanks' may convey the meaning that either one is thankful

I am sorry, I may not have articulated myself well. I just wanted to say that going by the number of users who use low beam, it doesn't look like it is useful anymore. I do a lot of night driving and don't see people using it. Between, is there anything wrong with using the high beam but using the headlamp leveler to focus it on the road. You get the best of both worlds! I mean you get a pretty powerful throw and don't blind the oncoming traffic as well.

[deep_bang]

I have a different perspective of these features. Sometimes I have had to rent cars and more often than not I don't want to spend a lot of time understanding all the features. There are a few basic things that help if automatic. For example, auto headlamp is simple and great - if I have a car with auto headlamp, I will just put it on auto and use it. Similarly, with auto wiper - although it may not be the best way, but it avoids learning cycles 'for each car' I rent.

The same holds true for cars we borrow - which we may not use a lot but just once a while. It just helps that technology aids us.

So, to me no feature is useless - it has it's uses however small it may be!!!

[sudeep.pandya]

Originally Posted by GTO

I've driven plenty of cars with cruise control, and have owned two with the feature over the last 13 years. Usage = Zero.

I know some BHPians are fans of the feature, but I'd guesstimate they'd lose out bigtime in a poll on whether or not one uses cruise control.

Trust me, we small town people use cruise control feature a lot than city folks

My highway drives in MP consists of 65% of cruise control usage in my Innova Crysta ZX 2.4

The best thing about it is the consistent fuel economy and I as a user feel tamed. How many times do we promise ourselves to not cross 100 Km/h but somehow end up doing speeds beyond that unknowingly. Cruise control keeps that in check.