Cruise Control Question

[Josall]

I received this email today and would ask if anyone concurs with the recommendation........Although I feel it is an American story...................

A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago. It was raining, though not excessively when her car suddenly began to hydro-plane and literally flew through the air. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence! When she explained to the Police Officer what had happened, he told her something that every driver should know -

· NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON..

· She thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain....

· But the Police Officer told her that if the cruise control is on, your car will begin to hydro-plane when the tyres lose contact with the road, and your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you take off like an aeroplane. She told the Officer that was exactly what had occurred. The Officer said this warning should be listed, on the driver's seat sun-visor -

· NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE ROAD IS WET OR ICY,

· Along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise control and drive a safe speed – but we don't tell them to use the cruise control only when the road is dry.

· The only person the accident victim found who knew this, (besides the Officer), was a man who'd had a similar accident, totalled his car and sustained severe injuries..

· NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on.

 

[dan_b]

Surely the actual moral of this story is
1. make sure your tyres are legal
2. drive to the conditions

 

[spike]

More questions than answers -

Assuming speedo reading is taken from the driven wheels, as those wheels aquaplane and speed up, surely cruise would back off the power and at least prevent the car accelerating out of control.

Natural reaction to the car suddenly speeding up would be to dab the brakes which switches off cruise.

I suspect it would not happen on A2s as the stability programme would recognise the difference in front and rear wheel rpm and back off the power, just as it does when the car hits ice (and possibly disengage cruise as well)

Even so, its still easy to crash on ice or when aquaplaning, even without the cruise issue.

Maybe it only applies to rear wheel drive American cars which may have the speedo drive off the front wheels

Wonder if its a project for Mythbusters

Cheers Spike

 

[shreddedmeat]

Even so, its still easy to crash on ice or when aquaplaning, even without the cruise issue.

Exactly. If you were driving at a constant speed i.e. constant throttle position then the wheels would accelerate anyway when they lost traction - at which point your natural instinct would be to cover the brake, just as you would if you were using cruise and the same occurred, surely?