When is it Safe to Use Your Cruise Control?

Anyone who is old enough to remember using cassette tapes, perhaps even before Acura made its way to North America, remembers hearing this warning: “The roads are slippery. Don’t use the cruise control!” As a responsible person, you don’t use your cruise control when the road conditions are less than ideal. Even loose gravel is enough to deter most people from pressing the cruise control button. In recent years, technology has come a long way. Do the old-school rules still apply, or can you use your driving assistive features in more complex driving conditions? We have your answers right here.

Is it Safe to Engage Cruise Control?

On snowy or icy roads

If winter weather has you on the edge of your seat, using finesse to get safely home, then it’s probably best NOT to use your cruise control. What happens is this: one tire loses traction for a moment and spins faster than the other. Your Acura detects it and counteracts it with ABS brakes or traction control, but it can turn off the cruise setting suddenly. That split second could be enough to make regaining control difficult.

On patchy paved roads

If the road conditions are alright but the paved road is pretty rough, you can set your cruise control. But be cautious – it’s still your responsibility as the driver to make sure you don’t lose control. If something looks sketchy, go back to manual control.

On busy highways

With normal cruise control, you can set your cruise control safely. However, all that speeding up and slowing down constantly can make setting then cancelling the cruise frustrating. It might be easier to just control your speed manually. If you have a newer Acura model, you likely have Adaptive Cruise Control with low speed follow. That means you can set your cruise and it will follow the car ahead of you at a safe distance. When traffic slows down, your Acura slows down to match speed. When traffic starts moving again, your car will adjust the speed up to the set speed, all the while maintaining a safe following distance.   With Acura technologies, you and your passengers can stay safer than ever. Adaptive Cruise Control with low speed follow is found on most new Acura models. Visit Jay Wolfe Acura in Kansas City to learn more, or to test drive one of the new Acura vehicles.