4 ms·

There was a cruise control ish system I heard about on a car (a Mercedes, iirc) in Germany when I was a kid: instead of a target speed, you set a maximum speed,

There was a cruise control ish system I heard about on a car (a Mercedes, iirc) in Germany when I was a kid: instead of a target speed, you set a maximum speed, such that pressing normally down on the gas allowed the car to accelerate up to that speed. It trims down the excess gas to avoid exceeding the maximum speed. If you released the gas, the car would coast; and if you pushed the pedal down close to the floor (i.e. "to the metal"), it would allow you to exceed the speed you'd set, for example to momentarily accelerate in order to pass. I loved this system and have always wished for something like this on a car in the US. I've never liked the common cruise control in the US -- where you set a target and it applies the gas for you -- because I didn't like how removing my foot from the gas pedal moved my foot fractions of a second further from the brake in an emergency.

weaksauce 9y ago
That system sounds pretty fantastic compared to the dumb cruise control I have in my car. Though it's not as predictable for the people that don't understand how it works.
tonfa 9y ago
That matches the behavior of the speed control I've seen in Renault cars.
sxates 9y ago
This feature exists in my Jaguar XF. Similar to the cruise control, you can set a 'max speed' and the car will simply not accelerate past that speed. I don't think I've tried flooring it to see if it would let me exceed it in that case though.
- robmcm 9y ago
  It will, there is normally a, "kick down" point where it will accelerate at max, for emergency situations. This also normally disengages the max limit. Another feature is speed warnings, which "beep" at you when you exceed them. Currently they only seem to be singular, but it should be possible to integrate them with satnav and speed sign recognition. I expect these would be safer, especially if it linked up with a, "black box" to report excessive violations with a parent, insurance company, police etc.
briandear 9y ago
It’s almost always standard in new European cars. I use it when I am in a speed-camera infested area.
6nf 9y ago
This is called a speed limiter and I LOVE it in my Mercedes. I set the limiter to match the road's speed limit and I can just drive without worrying that I'll get caught speeding. No need to constantly look down at the speedo.
- lathiat 9y ago
  Pointless in most reasonably modern cars which will chime alert you for any such problems (oil, fuel, etc). Much better paying attention to the road itself.
  - mhenr18 9y ago
    Clearly you don't live somewhere where speed limits are rigorously enforced. Setting a limiter frees you up from having to match the limit yourself and allows you to pay more attention to the road.
    - jdmichal 9y ago
      I think this was meant to be a response to this sibling post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15095626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15095626 Probably did not wait long enough for the reply button to appear.
- ams6110 9y ago
  Except you should be checking your dashboard instruments every few seconds. Temperature, oil pressure, speed, fuel. I'm constantly doing this while driving. Road ahead. Mirrors. Instruments. Road ahead. over and over.
  - aptwebapps 9y ago
    What are you driving that you need to check your temperature, oil pressure, and fuel every few seconds? If you don't, and you didn't have to check your speed, you could shorten your cycle to mirrors and road.
csydas 9y ago
> I've never liked the common cruise control in the US -- where you set a target and it applies the gas for you -- because I didn't like how removing my foot from the gas pedal moved my foot fractions of a second further from the brake in an emergency. It's not even just that, it's worse at managing the use of the gas overall than a human with regards to cars as of 2015, it seems like the system is worse at managing the gas than humans are. I'm not a huge fan of cruise control as defined above because I find it makes me really inattentive (my problem, of course), but the benefit of not using the cruise control is that it seems like you get much better mileage. My family used to have to drive regularly between Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois for a few years, and I would always get better mileage not using cruise control than my brothers (who used cruise control) would. The difference would often be as much as half a tank of gas or more on older cars (2000-2010) and on relatively newer cars (2015) it'd still be a difference of a fair number of gallons. I think the systems just aren't good at predicting when to coast and when to accelerate, and for very hilly regions, this means a lot of wasted gas.
- jdmichal 9y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if you were allowing speed to fall on those hills, while the cruise control systems were downshifting to get the power to maintain speed.
kylegordon 9y ago
That's just a speed limiter. Have it on my 4yo Volvo. Can be overridden by depressing the pedal fully to the floor (not a kickdown, before someone jumps on that aspect - it's a manual car)

weaksauce 9y ago

That system sounds pretty fantastic compared to the dumb cruise control I have in my car. Though it's not as predictable for the people that don't understand how it works.

tonfa 9y ago

That matches the behavior of the speed control I've seen in Renault cars.

sxates 9y ago

This feature exists in my Jaguar XF. Similar to the cruise control, you can set a 'max speed' and the car will simply not accelerate past that speed. I don't think I've tried flooring it to see if it would let me exceed it in that case though.

robmcm 9y ago
It will, there is normally a, "kick down" point where it will accelerate at max, for emergency situations. This also normally disengages the max limit. Another feature is speed warnings, which "beep" at you when you exceed them. Currently they only seem to be singular, but it should be possible to integrate them with satnav and speed sign recognition. I expect these would be safer, especially if it linked up with a, "black box" to report excessive violations with a parent, insurance company, police etc.

briandear 9y ago

It’s almost always standard in new European cars. I use it when I am in a speed-camera infested area.

6nf 9y ago

This is called a speed limiter and I LOVE it in my Mercedes. I set the limiter to match the road's speed limit and I can just drive without worrying that I'll get caught speeding. No need to constantly look down at the speedo.

lathiat 9y ago
Pointless in most reasonably modern cars which will chime alert you for any such problems (oil, fuel, etc). Much better paying attention to the road itself.
- mhenr18 9y ago
  Clearly you don't live somewhere where speed limits are rigorously enforced. Setting a limiter frees you up from having to match the limit yourself and allows you to pay more attention to the road.
  - jdmichal 9y ago
    I think this was meant to be a response to this sibling post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15095626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15095626 Probably did not wait long enough for the reply button to appear.
ams6110 9y ago
Except you should be checking your dashboard instruments every few seconds. Temperature, oil pressure, speed, fuel. I'm constantly doing this while driving. Road ahead. Mirrors. Instruments. Road ahead. over and over.
- aptwebapps 9y ago
  What are you driving that you need to check your temperature, oil pressure, and fuel every few seconds? If you don't, and you didn't have to check your speed, you could shorten your cycle to mirrors and road.

csydas 9y ago

> I've never liked the common cruise control in the US -- where you set a target and it applies the gas for you -- because I didn't like how removing my foot from the gas pedal moved my foot fractions of a second further from the brake in an emergency. It's not even just that, it's worse at managing the use of the gas overall than a human with regards to cars as of 2015, it seems like the system is worse at managing the gas than humans are. I'm not a huge fan of cruise control as defined above because I find it makes me really inattentive (my problem, of course), but the benefit of not using the cruise control is that it seems like you get much better mileage. My family used to have to drive regularly between Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois for a few years, and I would always get better mileage not using cruise control than my brothers (who used cruise control) would. The difference would often be as much as half a tank of gas or more on older cars (2000-2010) and on relatively newer cars (2015) it'd still be a difference of a fair number of gallons. I think the systems just aren't good at predicting when to coast and when to accelerate, and for very hilly regions, this means a lot of wasted gas.

jdmichal 9y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if you were allowing speed to fall on those hills, while the cruise control systems were downshifting to get the power to maintain speed.

kylegordon 9y ago

That's just a speed limiter. Have it on my 4yo Volvo. Can be overridden by depressing the pedal fully to the floor (not a kickdown, before someone jumps on that aspect - it's a manual car)