Wish the Y had dumb cruise control...

[PKOttawa]

First snow fall of the year.. and between the gummed up sensors and the falling snow - autopilot or advanced cruise control wasn’t available.

I would have loved to just be able to set a fixed speed so I could take my foot off the accelerator.. especially since all 6 cars I’ve previously owned were able to do this..

Sometimes it’s nice to have a low-tech option!

 

[qdeathstar]

Is that really a good idea in snow covered highways?

 

[somezorg]

I completely agree, there really needs to be an option for non-traffic aware cruise. Had the same problem my Volt, even a small amount of slush or dirt from the road could disable cruise

 

[PKOttawa]

Is that really a good idea in snow covered highways?

For Canadian standards.. it was just a light dusting - no problem

 

[MacZ]

I do not know if I fully understand what you asked for.

You can press down gear shifter 1 time only when it is in Drive mode, and it engages AP without auto steering. You still can adjust your preferred speed by srolling up or down on steering wheel. Is it the dumb cruise control you need?

Plus, you can start AP, then turn steering wheel a little to the left or right to disengage auto steering, but still keeps the cruise.

 

[PKOttawa]

I do not know if I fully understand what you asked for.

You can press down gear shifter 1 time only when it is in Drive mode, and it engages AP without auto steering. You still can adjust your preferred speed by srolling up or down on steering wheel. Is it the dumb cruise control you need?

Plus, you can start AP, then turn steering wheel a little to the left or right to disengage auto steering, but still keeps the cruise.

Yah.. due to the conditions (and sensors blocked) AP and auto steering were unavailable.
What I wanted was a way to just lock in a fixed cruising speed (I would do all the steering and braking.) This mode can work without any sensors.. I feel in the winter there might be many occasions where snow is going to block the sensors and all the fancy driving modes won’t work.

 

[Electroman]

I would argue for the opposite.

In all my decades of driving I have used the dumb cruise control maybe to to three times and found that a bit unsafe unless driving on empty stretches somewhere in the boondocks.

Especially now after using the adaptive cruise it is even more dangerous because we tend to forget the car won’t adjust speed in the dumb cruise.

Having both the dumb and adaptive cruise on the same car is inviting trouble.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I do not know if I fully understand what you asked for.

You can press down gear shifter 1 time only when it is in Drive mode, and it engages AP without auto steering. You still can adjust your preferred speed by srolling up or down on steering wheel. Is it the dumb cruise control you need?

Plus, you can start AP, then turn steering wheel a little to the left or right to disengage auto steering, but still keeps the cruise.

AP without autosteer is not regular old cruise control that just maintains a set speed. Therefore, AP without autosteer still needs to have fully working cameras or it won't work. Regular old cruise doesn't use any cameras or sensors (just speed of the vehicle), so it will work even when the cameras are covered in dirty and grime. Plus regular old cruise control never phantom brakes, which is why I wish I could have an option in the settings to use just regular old cruise control so I don't have to hover my foot over the gas pedal to catch any phantom brakes, thereby ruining the serenity of AP.

 

[jpfive]

The last car that I owned without adaptive cruise would also disengage if any loss of traction was sensed by the traction control. That is a good thing, IMHO.

 

[GtiMart]

What you need is adaptive cruise control that uses the radar, which would continue to work in most snow conditions except the worse. It'S the cameras that cause trouble and often get covered in snow. In fact, even when they work the cruise will sometimes brake for no reason, trying to use the autopilot "intelligence". Those false positives are problematic. A "dumb-ish" adaptive cruise like other cars would be very helpful.

For all those complaining that we shouldn't use cruise on snow, you obviously don't live in Canada. Why would I need to hold my speed constant for 3h on the highway instead of having the car doing it for me. Yes, I'm not an idiot, I will slow down in curves if it's required. I'm still the driver.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Many feel that using cruise control on snow/ice covered streets is not wise. Perhaps at those times manual control is prudent.

 

[SmartElectric]

Is that really a good idea in snow covered highways?

I have a 2013 Tesla Model S which allows "dumb" cruise control (because I don't have AP hardware) in any conditions, snow, rain, etc.
I used it yesterday when we had 15 cm (7") of snow when driving on 4 lane highway, just took the stress off gently applying slight force to acceleration pedal to keep at 70 km/h which is normally a very slow speed and there is no "chill" mode on early Model S.