i always thought cruise control is good because it keeps you at a steady and consistent mph and rpm rate. but a friend of mine said its not good and that you get worst mileage if you use cruise control. i would think you get BETTER mileage since you're not constantly pressing on the gas... so is cruise control a good feature or is it better to just leave that feature alone? please give me your incites fellow honda-techers! thanks.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by accorded66 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">but a friend of mine said its not good and that you get worst mileage if you use cruise control</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah i call bs on that too

 

common sense would say that using cruise control will produce better gas mileage than constantly accel and decel

but who knows, i could be wrong

 

Since I no longer have cruise control, it's not a choice for me. However, I only rarely used it when I did have it because you can really screw yourself up if you use it on a wet road.

 

your friend is an idiot. on my infiniti i get 4 mpg more using it than not. i took the same 45 minute drive to and from work for 2 years. i was bored and started paying attention.
28 vs 24 on the interstate is pretty compelling.

 

hey when i had cruise on my 94 teg i would use it on the highway sometimes and i would rest my foot o the gas pedal and notice it fluctuating alot....it would keep staedy speed but it seemed like it was always on or off the gas- i guess it wasnt a sophsticated as in some other or newer cars? i think i could use the throttle more smoothly myself- but i dont know about gas milage i never really paid attention

 

cruise is weak

 

here is the reason that cruise control will yield less fuel economy some of the time: the cruise control focuses on keeping a certain speed, so when it goes up a hill, it hammers the throttle, and when it goes down one, it lets off completely. this is the opposite strategy you would use if you were fuel-economy-minded. you would want to use medium throttle up a hill, conserving momentum where possible without wasting too much fuel, then using downhills to increase your momentum without using fuel. so, for those that don't live in hills, or for people who don't have a steady right foot, cruise control may be your ticket. myself, i have a dead steady right foot and i live in the hills. cruise control is not even a second thought for me. i never, ever use it. and i'm not fuel economy minded anyways. i keep my speed right on up every hill, because i can. i think it's fun to see how steep a hill i can climb and at how low and engine speed in top gear. you'd be amazed at what an LS can do.

 

cruise control gives you better gas mileage. it doesn't "hammer" the throttle when you go up a hill, it only gives enough to maintain the speed that you set. and yeah, when you go down a hill, it completely lets off the gas. so? are you saying that letting off of the gas uses more gas? wtf?

 

cruise control is great for the long empty highway miles and in theory it should save on gas. but in my case hitting the daily grind of the socal freeways limits me to first and second gear most of the time so no more cruise control.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LSvtec03 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">cruise control gives you better gas mileage. it doesn't "hammer" the throttle when you go up a hill, it only gives enough to maintain the speed that you set. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I travel in a pretty hilly area going to school and encounter some steep hills. When in cruise control, my gas pedal is nearly to the floor in fifth gear when going up a steep hill. The car does try to maintain the speed you were at on the straight level area. But in fifth gear, that means the car has to put the pedal to the floor to maintain high speeds on hills.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by drifterseven &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">cruise control is great for the long empty highway miles and in theory it should save on gas. but in my case hitting the daily grind of the socal freeways limits me to first and second gear most of the time so no more cruise control.</TD></TR></TABLE>

cruise keeps me from getting pulled over by cops

 

Cruise control gives you better gas mileage.

And you're probably only going to be using it for long-distance cruising anyway. If you're on a road with really steep hills, you're probably not going to be using the cruise control.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LSvtec03 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">cruise control gives you better gas mileage. it doesn't "hammer" the throttle when you go up a hill, it only gives enough to maintain the speed that you set. and yeah, when you go down a hill, it completely lets off the gas. so? are you saying that letting off of the gas uses more gas? wtf?</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes. going down a hill and keeping at the same speed is a waste of gas. you're going down a hill at 60, when you could speed up to 70 with almost exactly the same usage of gas. now that you're going 70, you can let off the gas going up the next hill, and slow to 55 on the way up, and at the top, you start accelerating to 70 on the way down again. try it, you'll get better mileage, unless you're retarded.

 

just call it dead weight.....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95lstegman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yes. going down a hill and keeping at the same speed is a waste of gas. you're going down a hill at 60, when you could speed up to 70 with almost exactly the same usage of gas. now that you're going 70, you can let off the gas going up the next hill, and slow to 55 on the way up, and at the top, you start accelerating to 70 on the way down again. try it, you'll get better mileage, unless you're retarded.</TD></TR></TABLE>
but just the fact of going down hill while not using gas does not waste gas in itself.

 

no, going down the hill does not waste gas no matter how you do it. but the cruise control will not take advantage of the situation, so yes, it loses gas mileage up AND down hills. if every road were a never-ending downhill, then cruise control would always be equal to manual control. but no read is like that, so tough noodles.

 

your friend is an idiot, but yeah, i use mine all the time when i'm on the highway to avoid tickets and i do get better gas mileage

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rottencorpse &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">your friend is an idiot</TD></TR></TABLE>


Cruise control was certainly not invented to waste more fuel than usual. And if it would have been a problem with it, it would have been resolved the following years that feature was released, like 10 years ago even more.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rottencorpse &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">your friend is an idiot</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

Fools

Go home and grab a book on control theory to read. Cruise Control and other trajectory based control uses either PID, IIR or FIR algorithm to control the speed. Basically if you are X behind/ahead in position (velocity), Y behind/ahead in integral (distance), and Z behind/ahead in derivative (acceleration), you will be given a formula of

X = Current speed - Last speed
Y = Sum (last N X)
Z = Current X - Last X

The amount of acceleration to use = Kp * X + Ki * Y + Kd * Z

Where Kp, Ki, Kd is found by a lot of tuning, it gives you the best acceleration that get you to your desired speed fastest without wasting any gas decelerating if you over accerate. It gives you much better gas milage than any human can, even at constant speed (imagine your foot is locked on the right pedal position on the first try, every try).


Don't doubt me, I do control algorithm for a living.

 

It's cruise control, not fuel economy control, all it's trying to do is maintain the speed and it does require some extra throttle pressure when going up a hill.

Top Gear had the Audi A8 and Jeremy was doing more mpg when not using cruise control as opposed to when he was.

So stop calling people idiots when you don't know what you're talking about.

 

Good for you! Although you should put on some glasses as I quoted somebody calling this guy an idiot, and did not call him that!

I really thought that Cruise control was made to relax your foot on long highway driving and at the same time do fuel economy by getting the best rpm/fuel injection ratio. And since your pedal is always pressed at the same level, it would decrease the amount of gas used.

I was sure of my point as I drove from my City (ottawa) to Quebec city (Canada) on ONE tank on cruise control (wich is about a dfistance of 330 KM) and when I came back from, on the same path, I didnt use cruise (nor the vtec) and had to do a refill at 3 quarter of the route.

So whatever, sorry for cheering at other poster's rudeness, but it sounded funny thats it thats all.

 

B.S

 

Criuse Control can be very dangerous. If you set the criuse and have a car that tracks perfectly straight, then there is a chance that you will stop focusing on driving and then straight into the back of another car.

 

Theres an easy solution to that. Pay attention when your driving.