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-   -   Cruise Control in India - Useful or Useless? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/223136-cruise-control-india-useful-useless-12.html)

Used this in the USA a long time ago.

Now in London, I haven't even tried it once. Even the freeways are busy so I know it's useless.
Moreover I like being in total control. Yes I hate automatics too.

Voted "Useless"

It's not that the roads are bad, I feel the ORR in Hyderabad is amongst the best there are, however our roads are full of idiots and every few hundred meters you'll encounter one idiot or another. Sometimes a two wheeler, some times a pedestrian or sometimes a douchebag who feels it's okay to drive on the wrong side on a national highway to avoid wasting a few KMs of gas finding a U turn.

Either way with all these distractions the entire case for cruise control becomes rather redundant in my opinion. I as it is just manage 1 highway drive per calendar year, would much rather enjoy it myself anyway.

Have voted for "useless".

1) I like to have very limited electronic gizmos in my car. Too many electronic gadgets equates to greater chance of failure.

2) It simply kills the driving experience for me. The same reason why I will never buy an automatic ever. I "live to drive" "not to cruise"

3) I believe too much reliance on on cruise control will be a hindrance to engine break-in. Without cruise control, I get to drive across RPM ranges. Hence better engine break-in.

100% useless. In India you must be crazy to think you can use it safely even on closed highways. Give me a slick manual petrol and full accelerator control and let me rest in peace as last of the petrolheads. Lolz.

Cheers...

Voted Useful. As a feature, it can still deliver some relief in Indian highways though it cannot be exploited to the fullest as in other countries' highways.
One useful fallout benefit is in maintaining the speed in restricted zones. It gives the required breaks from the pedal on long drives too.

The addition of simple cruise control as a feature would hardly cost the OEM anything extra. One needs those buttons and the SW to respond to the user inputs. This needs no additional electronics; the ECU manages to keep the vehicle speed constant by automatically reacting to road gradation.

Considering the above, all cars could come with this option, it’s up to the user to whether he wants to use it or not. So, I would say, it’s definitely needed in the car and will have its use occasionally for some and more frequently for the others.

I've voted "Useful".

I like Cruise Control and I would love to own a car with Adaptive Cruise Control. I read somewhere that since part of the radar frequencies used by Adaptive cruise controls is reserved by DOT (Govt of India), it was not possible to implement the same in India easily. But, back in Sep/ Oct 2018, there was a movement by SIAM and Nitin Gadkari/ MORTH was contemplating bringing in ADAS (Advanced Driver Aids) to cars in India by 2022 and opening up these radar frequencies was one of the envisaged steps. I hope we are on the path to achieving that.

While I use Cruise Control mostly on Highway drives (Hyderabad - Vijayawada and Hyderabad Bangalore and back) or ORR in Hyderabad. Lately, I have found use for it on city roads too. If I find an empty stretch of a road, I set the speed to the speed limits prescribed (say 50 kmph) and turn on the cruise mode. This goes on until I have to brake. But, provided the car is > 30 kmph, I use the reset mode to let the car accelerate to the previously set speed. I find that this leads to a bit better mileage and better acceleration. Following the same principle, while on Cruise, unless I have to take sudden action of braking/ slowing down the car, if I see an obstacle at a distance, I disengage Cruise manually from the stalks. And let the car slow down by itself, and turn it back on as necessary. It is fun at times to engage one's thumb instead of the foot to decelerate/ accelerate.

In a manual steering car like mine, it is a bit of an issue at times say when I am cruising at 80 kmph on the ORR and have to slow down to say 40 kmph, I would have changed gears from 6 to 3 or 4, so I accelerate back to 60 until I am on the 6th gear before resetting the Cruise stalk to take it back to 80 kmph. But, on an Auto steering car like a friends Audi Q3, it was much pleasurable. As the car auto engages gears and accelerates on resetting the Cruise back to initial set speeds. I could engage it back at 30 kmph to auto accelerate me to 90 kmph. And see the gush of power and pickup.

For me, it is useful but not a must have. I use it mainly to keep to speed limits It is more effective on an automatic car. Every time, I need to downshift, I need to reactivate the cruise control

As somebody who frequents to the highways a whole lot, I voted USEFUL!

With speed guns becoming common on highways I avoid breaking the speed limit and it has made my commute a whole lot relaxing also. The only beef I have with my 2013 Fortuner 4x4 MT is the lack of cruise control so I'm usually doing 5kmph less than the speed limit and at times it becomes irritating to constantly check out the speedometer.

When being on a cruise mode, it gives driver a comfort to place the foot in a more relaxed manner on the floor. So when you encounter a situation for an emergency braking, it may increase the time to brake. when the foot is one the A pedal, toggling between A and B pedal becomes spontaneous and consumes less time (in seconds - which may be more than enough to cause a disaster when you are cruising at triple digit speeds on the highways) than when a driver needs to move his foot from floor to the B pedal. As i mentioned initially, this is more of my personal experience and may differ from person to person.

Voted for useful.

Since I drive mostly on NH45/32 I love using CC. Gives plenty of rest to my feet. Besides I'm a sedate and laid back driver, I use these long drives as a form of an escape, with some good music while enjoying the view, the random coffee stops and some excellent local food on the way so CC definitely helps with the overall experience!:)

Voted for ‘Useful’.I have driven cars to many highways and i really thought about a cruise control to be a feature in my next car. Many seems to agree on ‘useless’ feature but it totally depends on your requirement.These are features good to have.There are long stretches in India too where you want some kind of a feature such as cruise control to monitor your car’s speed and putting ease on your right foot too.

Utterly useless feature for me. I live in Bangalore and travel for leisure to places like Coorg, Ooty etc. There is always traffic whether I take the Hosur road, the Pune highway or the Mysore road. I would be cruising at good speeds and suddenly two moron truck drivers would be driving in parallel, forcing me to come down to 40-70 KMPH. Even if there is less/no traffic for a longish stretch, I can't keep at a constant speed and keep changing my cruising speed as per road conditions. There is no one good speed for that long stretch for me. In my 5 years of ownership of my Fiesta, I have just used it 5 times I guess, that too to try it out or as a party trick. The only value I see in it is that the steering wheel would look dull without any buttons on the right side with all the ICE buttons on the left side of it.

Useful: YES
Must have: NO

I use cruise control extensively on KMP expressway which makes the drive more comfortable and helps me adhere to the speed limit as well.

Disadvantage: it makes the driving boring which increases the risk of dozing off.

I voted Yes.

I have never used it in India, but after using the Adaptive cruise control on the highways here in the US, I just love it.

I engage the cruise control the minute I am on any road with a speed limit of 45 mph and over.

I find it very useful.

Coming back to a lot of points by fellow T-Bhpians, the roads and road conditions especially the highways are getting better in India and so are the cars.

With a little self discipline, I am sure we could see a lot of improvement in traffic conditions and the usage of Cruise control being more practical to use.

Is it a Deal Breaker for cars in India : I would say No.

Is it a good to have feature and useful: Definitely a Yes