[pgsagar]

A must-have for me. I don't hit highways on a regular basis but when I do, I just can't do without it. In an AT car our left foot rests. But, whether an AT or an MT, our right foot never rests. On 300-400 KM runs, you will tire your right foot out, keeping the pedal pressed constantly. CC provides much needed relief. Even if it's only for 5-10 min at a stretch. I agree, our roads throw up too many nasty surprises. The trick lies in not setting CC at high speed, like above 90 kph. 'cause if you do, you will end up braking more often and cutting out CC. Set it at 70-80 kph, stay in the slow lane and watch everyone pass you. Advantage of slow speed is if you see some situation developing in the distance, you will also see it dissipate by the time you get to that point. That's the beauty of slow-speed cruising. Of course you can't drive at 70-80 all through your way, so you do mixed driving. Continuous high speed driving tires you out anyway plus it strains your senses, strains your car and raises chances of things going wrong.

Think of it as an autopilot, just as Jeroen pointed out. Set it and cruise in a relaxed manner at 70-80. Later, game for some spirited driving? Turn off the "auto-pilot", grip the wheel hard at 10 and 2, sink right foot to the floor, wear that evil grin and angry-bird eyebrows and start breathing down the tail-lights of the cars up front.

[Pacific]

Voted useful, we have a 2018 CRV with ACC, Collision Mitigation Braking System and LKAS (Lane keep assist system). Its a boon at highway speeds where one can engage the ACC and get some respite from pressing accelerator and brake pedals. My wife doesnt like it so much as the car tends to come to an abrupt halt at traffic signals.

[pms]

Voted for 'Useless'. I have a Honda City since last 8 years and got the VMT model with Cruise Control. Initially I thought it would be of great help in my frequent highway trips to Kerala from Bangalore. Surprisingly I found it very difficult to engage CC continuously even in good roads of TN and BLR- Krishnagiri sections just because of the increase in vehicular traffic, poor road manners, people cutting in from the sides, and more over you cant really relax after engaging it on Indian conditions. Maybe this is my experience and somehow I find it not comfortable or relaxing. Felt Automatic gear box presented relaxing and comfortable experience

[aveoman19]

Driving in Europe for more than 3 years now and I can only say "useful". With in-city speeds limited to 50 kmph in most places and 70 kmph in some others, it is more peaceful to set the speed as needed and focus on driving. Modern cruise control systems can remember the previously set speed limit and it is easier to reach it especially in an automatic car. The benefits on the highway are already discussed by many already.

[bled_soul]

Voted for useful! It’s an absolute boon for anyone who does a lot of highway driving. I do Mumbai Pune quite frequently and I love that I can set it to 90-100 kmph and just sit back and relax. Helps me stay within my preferred, and the law mandated safe speed limits. Also prevents me from unnecessarily speeding, and I believe helps with the efficiency too. An automatic should have it without doubt.

[vshankarhere]

I have voted useful. My driving usually involves long highway stints between Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore. Since Feb 2020 when I had acquired a Skoda Rapid with cruise control, I have found the feature to be useful to a large extent in the couple of highway runs I did since.

I have also observed that it makes more sense to engage CC at a speed of around 90 kmph rather than 110-120 kmph as at higher speeds you have to inadvertently brake to avoid miscellaneous traffic, slow moving trucks etc. At 90 kmph, you tend to have lot more control and can manage to beat the traffic without actually braking. One more thing I realised is I get slightly lesser fuel economy when CC is engaged rather than when I modulate the pedal manually as my usual tendency of coasting in between my accelerator inputs results in better FE.

[vigsom]

Voted useless as there are very few highways on which this feature can prove to be a boon.

Also, I prefer the accelerator inputs to be driver - controlled; helps the driver stay connected and alert .

[vikram31]

Voted useful: There are enough roads in india where 80-100 can be maintained for a few kms at a time atleast:

Mum-BLR
Del-JAI
SURAT-AHD
ROADS in PUNJAB
SOME OUTER ROADS in RAJASTHAN
ORR (Hyderabad)

I use it extensively and even if it means i switch off by hitting the break every few kms, i keep going back to a stable speed- keep my co passengers comfy (due to driving at a stable speed for long journeys) and get better mileage

On my manual XUV - i have tested the gap

Vashi-Ginger Hotel Pune - mileage 14.5 kmpl - cruise control on for as much time as possible around 90-100 kmph
Ginger Hotel Pune-Vashi - Next day at the same time in the morning - fully manual sticking to a max speed of ~100-105 - 13 kmpl

[Aravind_M92]

Cruise control sure is useful feature on long drives provided free open highways are available. My long drives are usually from Theni, Tamil Nadu to Madras on my City CVT. Tried driving with and without Cruise control (CC). The time difference between both was a mere 30 minutes.The one without CC where I drove with a heavy foot and aggressive braking with speeds upto 150kmph, returned a fuel efficiency of ~15 kmpl over a time of 7hrs30min from my home here to home there. But with CC set at 80kmph, she returned efficiency of 21kmpl over a duration of 8 hours. Both trips include food and coffee breaks as well and Air conditioner on during the entire trip. Yeah sure the trip gets a bit boring, but when travelling along, can do a sing along to your favourite songs or have a good chat with your fellow travellers!

[androdev]

It is definitely not useless. The question should have been, would you pay extra for it in India? I wouldn't. However the spec with cruise control will have a host of other features worth paying for, so we don't actually get to save money by opting out cruise control.

I mostly use it to stay below speed limits on certain roads with strict enforcement. Don't find the actual 'cruise mode' that useful given the level of attention our roads need.

[vharihar]

It might be a training issue. I feel those who have voted it useless, perhaps you're not using it correctly. Perhaps you're turning OFF cruise mode and then going through the rigmarole of setting it again, instead of just tapping on the brakes upon an interruption and hitting resume thereafter?

Or maybe you're driving far too fast.

Otherwise I don't understand how anyone can vote it as useless on hwys. It's tremendously useful, in automatic as well as manual cars.

Anyway, to each his own.

[Santoshbhat]

Voted for Useless, although I would have chosen the "Don't know, can't say" option if it were available. Useless for me maybe, but for those who do very frequent long drives CC can be very useful in our country today.

I have cruise control on two of my cars (both automatic) and I did use it a bit initially when there was a bit of a novelty factor. We do have wide straight highways now and it is possible to use CC and give your foot some rest and cruise steadily for decent stretches of time.

I find myself not using CC at all since past many drives. Reason is that driving on the highway is an occasion. A joy on that I look forward to. I don't want to miss out on that crucial driver input that tells the car to speed up or slow down . Same reason why some of us put the gear box in manual mode even when we have all the hardware and software that does the job for us!

This may sound weird, but I found that I am uncomfortable while using CC on the highway. I am used to lifting off throttle and getting some engine braking while coming close to other vehicles or passing them. But when you are in CC, the speed is constant and even though you have your foot on the brakes, you feel like the car is speeding up. I had a close call once when a lorry suddenly changed lanes and I was in CC. I managed to control the car, but it was a scary moment as the car was in 'steady speed holding mode'. Had I been out of CC, I am sure my foot would have been off the accelerator with the car losing speed slightly and ready for braking input. With CC on , there is that millisecond where the car cuts off CC after sensing braking input. Until then it is fighting the brakes.

[joyc_in]

Voted Useful...
I own a XUV 500 and Triumph Tiger 800 XRX, both have Cruise control. I find it very useful on our highways.
SECOND motivation to use CC is purely a relaxing Drive / Ride while enjoying music. THIRD motivation is fuel economy. Set CC between 110 to 120 kmph and enjoy. I admit, I do like the rush of hitting the roads above those speeds at around 150 or 170 kmph for a brief period just to satiate the enthusiastic driver in me.
There are too many variables on our highways as mentioned by other BHPians. With CC between 110 to 120 it gives me better CONTROL on my vehicles to handle any unforseen events that might occur.
Many of you (married gentlemen), have not mentioned your better half's who accompany you on drives and to a great extent control / regulate the speeds at which we drive. FIRST motivation is to ensure my better half has a peaceful drive at a comfortable pace which the CC allows me to do and everything else is hunky dory.

PS: I did not mention girlfriends as they are more forgiving of our misadventures.

[silverado]

As a technology its a wonderful thing, but not in India IMO.Its good for places where people religiously follow lane discipline.

I do a lot of Mumbai Pune runs, and IMO Cruise Control can bring in a lot of Monotony to driving, remove your involvement and possible slacken your concentration.

I will state an example here : I used to do early morning shift in Belapur and my office cab route was Palm Beach road from Vashi to Belapur. Its a long stretch and back in 2007-2008 it was not as crowded as now. Most cab drivers would be drowsy at 6 am and on few occasions the only way i knew driver was drowsy was by reduction in speed of the car. Imagine this in a Cruise controlled car!

[rahul_kej]

Voted Useful and the reason is that am into long road trips and highways are improving in India, so even relaxing the right leg even for few minutes in intervals is a breather when covering 1000 km a day. With more and more expressways coming up, cruise control is a boom if used in the correct manner.

In city its pretty useless nor its meant to be used in cities under any circumstances.