Driving habits of rural folk

[Oaktree]

^^^^^
I had a '93 which would wait too long, then go down 2 gears... and it only had 3 plus overdrive. In addition, every downshift it would add a mph to the speed. I would set it and forget it, and a half hour later it would have added 10 MPH.

Somewhere earlier in this thread I pointed out that you really can's set it and forget it. When approaching a hill I will add a little gas or downshift, depending on which truck I'm driving; on a downhill grade I use the brakes. It really has improved over the years though, and considering how much time I spend behind the wheel it does make it a bit more enjoyable.

That's my biggest complaint about CC too, though as you mentioned they've seemed to have improved it in the last 10 years or so...in my wife's car it's much smoother than in my truck or Jeep (both early 00s vintage).
Most of the driving I do is on relatively curvy 2 lane highways where it'd be more of a hazard than a help. It is nice on a long trip on an interstate...gives you a chance to move your legs around a bit, especially nice in newer vehicles with huge consoles that won't let you change driving position.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^
You raise another point which I've been noticing... while vehicles keep getting bigger and bigger the actual passenger space is smaller. I drove my old 2004 Ranger this week for the first time in a month, and was surprised to realize that it has more seat room than either my 2017 company Silverado or my 2018 Colorado.

 

[strantor]

See Industrial Toys post #225 for one.

I can however put over 50k on a vehicle. Even on longer 4-8 drives, generally with people driving too fast, too slow or even the speed limit, there always seems to be a somewhat constant change of speed.

I've also happen to experience 3Ts post #227 as well.

Added the fact that I grew up driving a 3 on the tree, and I find driving a very interactive activity, and find it personally easier just to manually control the speed with my foot on the gas. I know it's getting harder and harder to find a new vehical (other than a "sporty" car) with a straight drive, but do straight drives come with a crusie control option? That said with all the new technology and gadgets in cars I don't care for, I was able to convince my father to spend his money on upgrading his car, and his 89 year old body actually loves the paddle shifting on the wheel as he can't drive my straight drive truck anymore (I can still remember him hollaring at me teaching me to drive a speed on the floor:laughing

I see your point. I also prefer to have my driving experience be interactive (manual transmission, no traction control or adaptive this or that, etc.) if I'm driving for the sake of driving. Like a sports car or an offroad truck. But when I'm driving for the sake of getting somewhere, my ultimate goal would be to just teleport there, but I'll take whatever gizmo/tech that gets me a little closer to teleportation. If Tesla ever gets their self-driving software to the point it's safe to completely tune out, I'll buy a Tesla. I'll get up in the morning and put on pants, shuffle out to the car and lay down in the back seat, command it to take me to work while I catch another 1+hr of sleep. I'll have it start a cup of coffee when we're 15 minutes away and wake me up when it's ready. On the way home I'll catch up on emails or take another nap.

 

[Sigarms]

If Tesla ever gets their self-driving software to the point it's safe to completely tune out, I'll buy a Tesla. I'll get up in the morning and put on pants, shuffle out to the car and lay down in the back seat, command it to take me to work while I catch another 1+hr of sleep. I'll have it start a cup of coffee when we're 15 minutes away and wake me up when it's ready. On the way home I'll catch up on emails or take another nap.

They're still working on it...

Tesla Model S on Autopilot rams police car as driver watches movie, authorities say - Business Insider

Ultimately if I'm trying to make time and get to point A to point B in the shortest amount of time, definatley no CC.

 

[Jstpssng]

I see your point. I also prefer to have my driving experience be interactive (manual transmission, no traction control or adaptive this or that, etc.) if I'm driving for the sake of driving. Like a sports car or an offroad truck. But when I'm driving for the sake of getting somewhere, my ultimate goal would be to just teleport there, but I'll take whatever gizmo/tech that gets me a little closer to teleportation. If Tesla ever gets their self-driving software to the point it's safe to completely tune out, I'll buy a Tesla. I'll get up in the morning and put on pants, shuffle out to the car and lay down in the back seat, command it to take me to work while I catch another 1+hr of sleep. I'll have it start a cup of coffee when we're 15 minutes away and wake me up when it's ready. On the way home I'll catch up on emails or take another nap.

They've had those for years. Just look for the checkered cab.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Here’s a bet.

Let’s take 200 drivers at random. 100 use cc, 100 do not.

We start at the southern W. Va. State line, on I 77, headed north.

If you have ever driven the grape vine in Cali you will recognize I 77 in W Va. I 77 has less lanes, which is the problem.

I don’t think there is a flat spot in W Va., I could be wrong.

This route will challenge any cc and any driver not using cc.

You have to give the trucks a break. They have to zoom downhill cause there’s an uphill coming up quickly, there speed varies from the hi 70s to the low 40s sometimes, dangerous.

Forum members not withstanding, I strongly believe the cc cars will do a much better job.

Driving here, for too many people, is an afterthought, at best.

Side note. Just a story.

GM bought Hughes Aircraft Co. years ago, a national treasure. I represented 2 divisions for over 20 years, truly state of the art at that time.

Hughes lead the world in high frequency radio electronics, primarily semi conductors.

GM sold off all the Hughes assets and kept the Millimeter Wave semi conductor capability. MM waves are just the next step up from microwave which is the next step up from UHF. Remember those UHF channels on TV in the 60s?

The KU and KA band cop radars are MM wave. Im pretty sure Ku means under 40 GHz and KA means above, been a while! Generally speaking, the higher the frequency, the better the resolution. You can see better, but not as far.

Thanks to Hughes Aircraft, we have adaptive cc. And all 3 of my vehicles are too old to have it ha ha ha!

Oh yea, and the Spruce Goose!

 

[Sigarms]

They've had those for years. Just look for the checkered cab.

I was actually thinking about Trailways or Greyhound.

 

[Jstpssng]

I left home early this AM pulling a 2200 lb trailer in my little Colorado, 20 miles later I hadn't seen another vehicle so when I came to a pretty significant hill I tried an experiment. I let the CC do it's job and watched as my speed dropped from 57 down to around 53, then started picking back up again. By the time I got to the top of the hill I was back up to 57 again... a little faster than I probably should have been driving with that trailer but as I said I had the road to myself.

It doesn't matter to me whether somebody chooses to use CC or do their own driving, I just found my experiment to be interesting.

 

[dodge man]

I will often take the cruise off on rolling hills, Illinois hills. The cruise will fall behind going uphill, drop one or two gears, get back to speed at the top of the hill, get going to fast immediately going downhill, drop two gears to slow down, then repeat all over again. If you take the cruise off, your speed will vary but no downshifting.

 

[lman]

Our newest vehicle has adaptive cruise control with lane centering. Initially I was skeptical on whether I would like all of these bells and whistles. I now find that the safety of these newer vehicles makes it great options to have. This vehicle will actually steer itself to keep in the center of the lane, it does require that you keep your hands on the steering wheel and will remind you if there is no activity with the steering wheel by the driver. I now find that if I am looking off to the side, I worry less about my vehicle wandering. In my area of flat farmland, I use cruise control quite a bit. I still am amazed when the vehicle steers around a curve on it's own. I guess i was also amazed when cruise control became an option on vehicles years ago. Obviously I don't use cruise control on the backroads that i live on. You can't even drive the speed limit on my road due to the chuckholes.