How Intelligent Is Automatic Cruise Control?
Will your next car be able to drive itself? Maybe not, but automatic cruise control technologies bring your car a step closer to being fully automatic. Automatic cruise control, unlike traditional cruise control, uses either lasers or radar to adjust the car’s speed automatically when approaching another vehicle. First introduced by Mercedes-Benz in 1998, the technology has since become a common feature in luxury brands, such as BMW, Lexus, Jaguar, and Infiniti. However, as the technology has become more affordable, it started showing up in more economical models.
Advantages of Automatic Cruise Control
Just how effective are these systems? Can you count on them to slow down before you end up in a collision? The good news is that government studies have shown automatic cruise control reduces your chances of crashing into the car in front of you. Not only that, but it has also been proven to maximize fuel efficiency.
Downsides of Automatic Cruise Control
But like any technology, automatic cruise control has its pros and cons. Computerized traffic simulations have shown that when multiple vehicles with automatic cruise control interact with each other, the result is a wave of acceleration and deceleration. The effect has another name when caused by human drivers: A rolling slowdown. In other words, automatic cruise control has the potential to cause traffic jams.
That’s not the only drawback of automatic cruise control. It’s also been found to cause motion sickness in some drivers. The reason drivers don’t usually experience motion sickness is because they can anticipate sudden changes in speed; however, with automatic cruise control the driver may become disconcerted by rapid shifts in speed that could potentially lead to driver errors. Then there’s the concern that automatic cruise control could cause drivers to pay less attention to the road. However, this isn’t necessarily a drawback of the technology itself.
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