[Pulse500]

Voted useful.

I cannot imagine driving without it if I have to cover a distance of over 150 km or driving for over 3 hours in a single day, even if the road is a mix of highways and city roads. With Cruise control I have comfortably covered distances over 600km per day, without knee or back pain or stress. Setting constant speed or adjusting by fingers allows me to move my legs and sitting position a bit once in a while without causing car to drop speed, and the little rest my right foot gets is very useful. Constant speed also reduces stress, I concentrate better and my fingers remain busy. I found it helpful even on short highway stretches in city now, although initially I thought it wont help.

[JojyKerala]

Voted Useless.

I used to have Cruise Control on my Honda Odyssey around 15 years ago. Never liked that feature in the US. The car had an automatic gearbox - combining this with Cruise Control took the pleasure away from driving.

[bhavik.1991]

Voted Useless.
The main reason is, I feel less confident with CC on Indian roads. If my right foot is resting a few inches away from break pedal while using CC, it will increase reaction time in case of an emergency breaking (those extra milliseconds to reach to the break pedal from the resting spot). It can be catastrophic in case of a person/biker/cow/buffalo/monkey/dog/an airborne vehicle from opposite lane jumps out of nowhere in front of you.

[viper_711]

Originally Posted by RaceHorse

Voted Useless. This is mainly from the perspective of fuel efficiency.

Contrary to experience of others I am getting very less efficiency on my Verna petrol AT when Cruise control is set.

The reason could be RPM is fixed to 2500 when cruise control is set. Where as average speeds of 80kmph can be achieved at 1500 RPM itself which returns better efficiency.
This setting might be different in other cars but on Verna AT this is how it is.

I'm very surprised by this! My fuel efficiency actually goes up with CC engaged. Not sure why the Verna would spin at a higher rpm with CC engaged. Was sport mode engaged?

[84.monsoon]

Voted useful.

It is really useful to give your right foot some rest and a chance to stretch around a bit during long highway drives. Even if you get to do it only for 2-3 minutes at a time, before having to resume controls sue to road conditions, the 2-3 minutes is good enough to do this.

Although it is less useful in MT vehicles. What I find useful is you can reduce and increase the speed through the up/down toggle on the cruise control. However when the speed falls below say 70 kph or so for a few seconds, in an MT vehicle, you would need to reengage your feet to change the gear and then again back as the vehicle speeds up.

[Rahul_]

Voted : Useful.

Like many have already pointed out it is a no brainer in US where you have excellent highways, Lane discipline and excellent speed restrictions.

I think India has made significant progress in building wide excellent highways and now speed restrictions are more than ever before (more chances of getting a ticket when you are travelling to completely new to the part of country), only thing which is missing is lane discipline which I *hope* is learnt by Indian drivers in the years ahead.

I use Cruise Control as much as possible on the highways, in the city I do use it on few occasions like when I am driving off peak hours on Outer Ring Roads or NICE road (in Bangalore). Reason of using is not really to relax my right foot but several others which I would like to stress upon.

• Keep a tab on the maximum speed that I am driving. Usually engage cruise control at the speed limit recommended for the road. There are times I have tried to set it a little higher (like 95 on a 80 section) and that is exactly when the cruise control (at least non-adaptive on my Vento) feel completely useless because you end up breaking up and coming out of cruise control. I think it works very very well if you are prefer driving at controlled speeds. Even on an open highway I set it to 100/110 max depending on the highway. Also, on I set the speed alarm a little higher (say 20-30kmph over cruise control speed) to remind me to keep in limit even while I overtake of increase speeds over set speed.

• Excellent Fuel Economy - Its a known fact that you probably end up getting best fuel economy while using cruise control as there is less breaking and acceleration in comparison to how one would drive generally. I have had seen 20-21kmpl readings on my Vento TSI on cruise control on highway trips which in comparison has shows me usual numbers of 7-10kmpl on outer ring road office runs on daily basis.

• Usage of Cruise Control + AT keeps rest of the passengers in the car extremely happy as they find the car running extremely smooth and have had less complaints on jerks or rather fatigue on longer trips.

Usage of cruise control for me has never meant to me a way to relax. I am at my usual attention while driving and usually do not get irritated when Cruise control breaks on highway due to breaking because all I need to do is press the resume button and the car comes back to set speed with extreme gentleness.

[tristis2008]

Any feature in a car such as CC can not always or even most of the time be used in India. Like all of you have pointed out, the traffic conditions, road conditions, lane discipline etc., aren't suitable.

Gradually the driving conditions on highways are improving and there are always opportunities to use CC and make the journey easier. Although my car does not have CC, I had an opportunity to use it for some time. It can at times be irritating in some road conditions , like in roads whose altitude keeps changing. But certainly comfortable in favorable conditions. Its important though that the CC is complemented with other safety features such as fatigue detection, emergency breaking etc.

These autonomous vehicle features are useful and make the overall journey more comfortable, if they can be used. Hence my vote goes to "useful", definitely not a must have.

[Nimz]

I voted useful.

I have CC on my 2014 Ford Fiesta. It was not at all a purchase criteria then. But now I have grown so used to it that it will be a "must have" in my next purchase.

I do not use it in Bangalore traffic - except for airport trips where I engage it occassionaly (keep it at 80 kmph).. I do make a few trips to Chennai and use it extensively on the 6 laner. I keep it at 100 to start with and if the road is empty I slowly increase it to 110/120. If I see a slow moving truck or a car in the horizon I disengage CC till I overtake it.

For me it has become a "must have" now.

[travelwriter]

I voted ‘Useless.’

In our country, we have to be alert at all times, even on highways. Cruise Control works when number of variables are near zero when driving- no bumps or potholes, lane driving disciplines, merging lane disciplines, etc.

Without any assurance of any sort, including the basic road markings, cruise control is useless

[IntoTheStorm]

Voted useful! I used to drive regularly from Chennai to Palakkad ( Home town) on my Elite i20 Sportz variant and what I missed was cruise control to keep driving at a constant 80-90 kph. Chennai - Palakkad stretch is so good (except Ulundurpet-Salem stretch & L&T road) that I can keep doing 80-90 without much interruption! But due to lack of cruise control often had to take short breaks in between to give some rest to my poor yelling ankle! Now that I sold the i20 and planning for Polo TSI, I can use cruise control to make the journeys less tiresome with added benefit of improved FE

[PraNeel]

Voted Useful - On Highways only
I have driven my Ciaz on RJ, UP, PB, HR highways and the expressway bypassing Delhi. I found it immensely useful and once can easily control the speed using + and - buttons and maintain a constant speed and distance from other vehicles.
Yes, I agree that one can't set it for whole journey as there are interruptions, however CC provides a respite to your right toe, let's you drive calmly and avoids those irritating speed warnings. Engage cruise control on 119 and enjoy
Set the speed just 1 kmph less than the speed limit cruise. Somehow it gives immense satisfaction and a grin when you go past the speed interceptors watching the gloomy cop who is unable to fine you

[alphahere]

Voted Useless in India

I have driven extensively on interstates in the US and motorways in the UK. These highways are restricted to vehicles that are above a defined engine size and have barriers on the sides and high separations between the opposite directions. Pedestrians are not allowed on them either. To top all this; people are more sensible in using the road facility. I would expect no different in other countries that are ahead of India in the road system. In such cases cruise control is very easy to operate and is a very useful feature to have when you drive for miles on end and cannot break the speed limit. Provided you don't fall asleep at the wheel. There is almost zero probability of meeting an opposing object apart from the occasional deer bounding across the highway. And such areas are clearly sign posted well in advance.
The situation in India is very different. Save for certain times of the day on certain routes. You can find all sorts living and non living objects pop out in front of you every km ranging from cows and donkeys to jaywalkers to villagers trying to haul their mopeds over the median in an effort to cross the highway. Also creating heart failure are ricks and 2 wheelers that seem to turn on a dime with zero warning. To top it all off local hotshots driving pimped up ricer tin cans with no regard to road discipline and speed limits cause a royal pain in the rear.
Also in my opinion for a congested scenario like in India cruise control is best implemented only in an automatic transmission vehicle. You at least have the opportunity to reengage it using the steering wheel buttons without touching the A pedal if you have to brake. There will be absolutely no use of it in a manual transmission vehicle because you will never be able to hold a gear anyway; let alone setting your speed constant.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by RaceHorse

Voted Useless. This is mainly from the perspective of fuel efficiency.

Contrary to experience of others I am getting very less efficiency on my Verna petrol AT when Cruise control is set.

The reason could be RPM is fixed to 2500 when cruise control is set. Where as average speeds of 80kmph can be achieved at 1500 RPM itself which returns better efficiency.
This setting might be different in other cars but on Verna AT this is how it is.

Why not shift to the highest gear in manual mode, and then engage the CC? If I am not wrong, Verna must be having a manual mode.

[RaceHorse]

Originally Posted by viper_711

I'm very surprised by this! My fuel efficiency actually goes up with CC engaged. Not sure why the Verna would spin at a higher rpm with CC engaged. Was sport mode engaged?

There is no sport mode in Verna AT.

Originally Posted by 07CR

Why not shift to the highest gear in manual mode, and then engage the CC? If I am not wrong, Verna must be having a manual mode.

Even in manual mode, when you shift to 6th gear and engage the CC at speeds above 80kmph , the RPM immediately fixed to above 2000 RPM. I tried both.

[buntee90]

Voted useful!
With increasing no of Speed Cameras in Delhi-NCR it seems like a useful feature for adhering to speed limit, when one can easily cross 50Kmph/70Kmph subconsciously!
On some sections of highways/expressways like Delhi-Agra-Lucknow it would also come in handy.