Looking for a car with cruise control? Here’s everything you need to know

ADAS stands for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and is becoming an increasingly popular and widely available feature in many modern cars, even mass-market models. The most intensely competitive segment of the Indian passenger vehicle market, the compact SUV, has also seen the introduction of ADAS. While the Mahindra XUV 3XO comes with Level 2 ADAS, other models in this category come with Level 1 ADAS in their respective top-end variants.

Also Read: Will ADAS as a Technology Survive in India?.)

ADAS is essentially a bundle of safety features, working in collaboration with a host of hardware and software. The hardware for ADAS includes sensors, radars, cameras, etc. The safety features bundled under ADAS include complex features like cruise control, cross traffic alert, park assist, rear collision warning, surround view, pedestrian detection system, lane departure warning, traffic. Sign recognition, automatic emergency braking, blind spot detection etc. Among these features, cruise control is becoming increasingly popular and widely available for many cars, even in the mass-market segment.

Here’s an explainer about cruise control.

Cruise control: what it is

Cruise control is a feature under the ADAS suite, which allows the driver to set a specific speed for the car. The name is self-explanatory as it allows the vehicle to cruise at a certain speed. Since the cruise control is engaged, the driver does not need to press the accelerator to keep the vehicle at the set speed. The technology-enabled feature controls and brings a certain amount of automation in driving at a preset speed.

There is an advanced form of cruise control, called adaptive cruise control. It comes as a step up from regular cruise control and adds more sophistication to advanced automatic technology. In the case of adaptive cruise control, once the speed is set, the car continues to move at a certain speed but constantly adjusts the speed according to the speed of the surrounding traffic in an attempt to keep a safe distance from other vehicles around it. Additionally, it works together with automatic braking technology to slow down or stop the car when necessary.

How does it work?

Cruise control technology uses an actuator to control throttle input and maintain a pre-set speed. Cruise control works in the same way as the driver continues to drive at a certain speed. Adaptive cruise control also uses a similar mechanism but is equipped with automatic emergency braking, another bundled feature under the ADAS suite. It mimics the way a driver accelerates and decelerates in highway traffic and on beaches.

Normally, the cruise control feature can be activated and deactivated with a single button. The button is usually located on the steering wheel or in some cases on the center console. The cruise control buttons come with +/- buttons, which are used to increase or decrease the speed.

Date of first publication: 09 May 2024, 08:41 AM IST