4 ms·

Woah, you drive with your cruise control on in bad weather conditions like that? I was always trained to never, ever use cruise control in adverse weather cond

by Yeroc 11y ago

Woah, you drive with your cruise control on in bad weather conditions like that? I was always trained to never, ever use cruise control in adverse weather conditions. Without having your foot on the accelerator to be able to quickly react to a skid or whatever just seems insane...

jonknee 11y ago
Well the car would automatically take care of the skid. It's not cruise control like you're thinking of (it's radar based) and like any other modern MB it has advanced traction control. It even bowed out when it couldn't perform optimally. Sounds fine to me!
ddingus 11y ago
Simple cruise systems only monitored speed and would throttle the engine to maintain the target speed. When a loss of traction happens, the proper response is usually letting up on the throttle so traction can be regained. These old, simple systems would apply more throttle insuring a mere slip turns into an epic spinoff event. Secondly, when driving in spotty traction conditions, it is good to use a lower numbered gear and a safe speed combined. That same loss of traction event can result in a very rapid spin of the tires due to the higher gears and torque combining to produce a rapid increase in tire spin rate when not constrained by the weight of the car and traction. This can happen before a human can respond. The higher gear puts the engine at a higher rpm and closer to it's natural unconstrained speed, which diminished both the event and it's impact considerably. The human experiences momentary chatter as the grip of the tire varies, but does not experience runaway spin and the abrupt loss of control it brings. I would think an automated car could be programmed with this all in mind and do rather well. An awful lot of humans could use this kind of data programmed in as well. :)

4 ms·

Woah, you drive with your cruise control on in bad weather conditions like that? I was always trained to never, ever use cruise control in adverse weather cond

by Yeroc 11y ago

jonknee 11y ago
Well the car would automatically take care of the skid. It's not cruise control like you're thinking of (it's radar based) and like any other modern MB it has advanced traction control. It even bowed out when it couldn't perform optimally. Sounds fine to me!
ddingus 11y ago
Simple cruise systems only monitored speed and would throttle the engine to maintain the target speed. When a loss of traction happens, the proper response is usually letting up on the throttle so traction can be regained. These old, simple systems would apply more throttle insuring a mere slip turns into an epic spinoff event. Secondly, when driving in spotty traction conditions, it is good to use a lower numbered gear and a safe speed combined. That same loss of traction event can result in a very rapid spin of the tires due to the higher gears and torque combining to produce a rapid increase in tire spin rate when not constrained by the weight of the car and traction. This can happen before a human can respond. The higher gear puts the engine at a higher rpm and closer to it's natural unconstrained speed, which diminished both the event and it's impact considerably. The human experiences momentary chatter as the grip of the tire varies, but does not experience runaway spin and the abrupt loss of control it brings. I would think an automated car could be programmed with this all in mind and do rather well. An awful lot of humans could use this kind of data programmed in as well. :)