[TROOPER]

Useful!

I used to think it's a gimmick till I used it myself. 500+ km trips are made easy thanks to CC. In addition, it becomes easy to not go bonkers and drive sedately if family is in tow.

I had a relaxed drive with CC on the Mumbai-Bangalore highway. Especially on the Karnataka stretch thanks to less traffic and 6 lane roads. With roads improving, I see myself using CC more often.

[singlaankush]

Voted - Useful.

I use it to discipline myself. I was among those drivers whom you call the curse of road. I drove rash at high speeds.

But since last few years, I am trying to control myself. Even on expressways like yamuna Expressway and Agra-Lucknow expressway, I try not to cross 80 KMPH. But still there are moments of weakness. Cruise control helps there.

[aniketi]

Originally Posted by GTO

But most of all, I really enjoy controlling the accelerator pedal myself .

Need 3rd Option - Somewhat useful. We only have 2 extreme options.

Voted Useless as i don't have 3rd option. In India it can be useful only on some roads, that too on limited occasions. Mumbai - Pune express way, yes. Pune - Ahmednagar highway, no. If you start early like 4-5 AM, mostly our highways are deserted and one can maintain steady speeds of 90-100 KMPH where it can be useful. Else in daytime, our highways gets crowded with all types of vehicles including Animals as well

[AnandB]

Useful for me. What's not is how cruise control for a manual. I had it in my manual Santa Fe for 8 years and not even tried to use it once.

[Nalin1]

I have used it a couple of times and I felt like a passenger in the car and not the one in the driving seat!.

So the usability of this feature depends on the driver actually. If he/she is comfortable with the car moving along at a steady speed while you need to intervene only in case of obstacles, then a very useful feature .

Since there is no shortage of obstacles on Indian roads, I will feel more in control with me regulating speed.

Maybe I might change my mind if use it more.

[2himanshu]

Voted for yes

I use it in my Scorpio whenever there is free stretch.

[PetrolRider]

Very much useful, at least to my style of driving (sedate). Warning! heavy right foot users and spirited drivers, kindly skip ahead.

To be fair, there is no point of using CC in city condition, but way more beneficial in a 4 lane paved highway that we are seeing now a days. I do agree, CC loses its value near city entry / exit areas in Highways, but for rest of the time, it gives the much needed rest to the right foot and also reduce fatigue and anxiety at-least for me.

The trick I use is to anticipate my average speed for a particular stretch of road and set CC at negative 10% to that, i.e. if I believe my average speed would be 80 in a stretch, I set CC at 70. This actually reduces much of those manual interventions and I can make 80% CC time. Again, time difference of lower speed largely offset by reduced use of break and regaining of speed. What else, the drunkard 1.6 NA petrol engine of my Verna returns 18-20 KMPL with these tricks.

Some of my loved CC routes are Pune-Hyderabad between Loni and Hyderabad outskirt, with exception of 20 KM border area of MH, Between Karad and Belgavi on Bengaluru highway and between Talegaon toll and Panvel on Mumbai-Pune expressway with exception of Khandala ghat area.

CC helps me a lot on those insanely speed controlled Goa roads. Again, I could never use CC on Pune-Ahmed Nagar-Shirdi route.

[Nalin1]

I have used it a couple of times and I felt like a passenger in the car and not the one in the driving seat!.

So the usability of this feature depends on the driver actually. If he/she is comfortable with the car moving along at a steady speed while you need to intervene only in case of obstacles, then a very useful feature .

Since there is no shortage of obstacles on Indian roads, I will feel more in control with me regulating speed.

Maybe I might change my mind if use it more.

[d3mon]

Voted for useful. My 320d doesn't have cruise control and I wish it had it.

What it does have however is a LIM function, which allows you to limit the speed to whatever you set. You still have to control the accelerator yourself. Say I'm going on a heavily policed expressway with a speed limit of 70 - I can set the LIM to that speed and drive the car as I want without having to check my speedo over and over again.

It does have a couple of design decisions that you need to be aware of though:

- If you are accelerating moderately hard and hit the speed limiter, it's extremely disconcerting to suddenly have the accelerator stop responding to your inputs. It feels like you broke something and your heart sinks for a moment before you realize it's just your good old friend, LIM. Phew.

- While 0-90% of the A-pedal won't do anything once you hit the set speed limit, the last 10% will give you an explosive downshift and propel you forward like a bat out of hell. This is a safety feature, to avoid you getting stuck in the middle of an overtake or such.

[for_cars1]

Voted useful, after having experienced it for the last 6 years in my car. I'm an occasional user of cruise control though for primarily relaxing the right foot and knee on very long drives.

On most highway drives on our roads where there is lot of traffic, uneven roads and intersections, engaging cruise control is actually risky. I always prefer to modulate the accelerator pedal by foot most of the times because the vehicle speed can never be constant in our busy highway conditions.

However on very long drives covering between 600 to 750 KMs in a day and foot constantly resting with the heel on the vehicle floor and the toes on the accelerator pedal can lead to a sore heel and painful knee. It is here that cruise control is a real boon because there will always be empty stretches of highway with very less people and animal movement where cruise control can be effectively engaged and gives the much needed rest to your right foot on really long drives.
So cruise control almost becomes a necessity for fatigue free driving when you get empty stretches of highway with good roads.

After engaging cruise control, it is important not to become complacent and your right foot (which is now resting) must be ever-ready to hit that brake and take back accelerator control whenever needed.
When our foot is constantly on the accelerator, it is engaged and alert and has acquired an automatic reflex to hit the brakes when needed. On cruise control, your right foot is relaxed and not alert, so hitting the brakes when required should be consciously done until it becomes a reflex action over time even in cruise control mode.

On our roads, you simply cannot go on and on forever on cruise control, you have to take the call and switch between cruise and manual as often as needed.

[kanishka88]

Thanks for this poll. I see a lot of fellow TBHPians rubbishing a car for its lack of Cruise control on several threads. In my opinion, its a completely useless feature to have in India. I had it in my Ecosport and all it did was pump up some anxiety whenever i engaged it. It could be for fear of lack of control but what's the use if you cancel / restart every 2 minutes? Also, i think there are tons of features car manufacturers can and should prioritze over this (auto-dimming IRVM, probably 2 more air bags?)

While driving on EU / US expressways - i cannot imagine doing it on a car without cruise control

[jithin23]

I feel cruise control is a necessity when one travels a lot on the highways (say more than 500km) and those cross country drives can make driving a bit easier when you're the only person driving. Given that our country's road sceanrio isn't the most ideal for engaging CC, but it helps in relieving the pain in the right foot after driving for more than 7 hours a day.

It's useful when used at the right time for short strecthes.

I wonder why manufacturers skimp on this feature on lower variants as it Costs way less than an auto dimming mirror or any other fancy feature which they're trying to market and which will be used by the owners once in a while only (Sunroof, that's you!)

P.S: Even I like to control my car manually but would require that few minutes of the car controlling it's speed to give rest for my leg.

[megazoid]

Voted useless.

The one feature in the car that spooks me every time I use it. Many a time, its been for the sake of using it without many gains. I actually get stressed using cruise control for fear of losing focus and being late on the pedals. Never could harness it well enough. When I find a speed that is safe for CC, am way too slow and get stressed all over again.

[turbowhistle]

Voted for useless, it's a gimmick for me in India.

You never know in what situation you can be in in the next 30 seconds while driving on Indian roads, so I prefer have to the controls in my hands instead of the vehicle. Hopefully things change and we get strict rules soon ( we already have good roads to use cruise control now)

[Somu2009]

Voted for useless (Please mind that this vote is only country specific).

While I was in America for my studies it was helpful as it makes sure you stick to the speed limit as fines as huge and they also affect your driving record in in turn affects the insurance cost. Moreover in places like America it's useful as there's less chances of finding interruptions (or lets call them SURPRISES) after ever 30 seconds of peaceful driving. Also in America, the freeways (highways) are most of the times arrow straight and they remain freeways throughout unlike in our country where it won't be a surprise to find an 8 lane highway suddenly changing into a single lane due to construction or various other reasons. I've seen highways changing their entire shape and course just after entering a different constituency because the politician responsible for the same had different interests.

In India it's absolutely useless until and unless:
1. Everybody respects the driving rules, especially lane driving
2. Highways are closed on both sides so that animals and people behaving like animals don't jump in suddenly without even looking.
3. Infrastructure improves. We have only a few select highways which can be termed as "highways" rest are barely struggling to be slightly wide roads.

There could be many more things, but I feel if the above 3 points are in place then it will still be useful at times to use features like cruise control in a country like ours.

Also one more reason I feel it is useless is because at times it may make you pay less attention to the road ahead and be alert.