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Since hydroplaning lifts the tires, there’s less friction due to the loss of contact with the road, and the wheels spin faster. Your car’s cruise control may detect this as crossing your selected speed limit, so it may decelerate a little. In the rain, using cruise control at higher mph can cause hydroplaning. Or, in snow and ice, vehicles may lose traction, resulting in a skid into another lane or a spin off the road.
When coupled with rain, cruise control can lead to disastrous — and potentially deadly — results.
The next time you find yourself behind the wheel of car in a rainstorm, be sure to disable cruise control. If you end up hydroplaning, your cruise control can make it a lot more dangerous. So, while cruise control won’t cause you to speed up when you aquaplane, we still do not recommend its use during inclement weather. The internet has made available an entire world of easily-accessible information… and misinformation. Type into Google, ‘why you shouldn’t use cruise control in the rain’, and you’ll get a raft of different views.
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That is why if it is raining outside you should not use your cruise control while you are driving. If you see a puddle of water in the road you are more likely to slow down and not accelerate through it where your cruise control is not going to know to do that. This can become a problem for you if you are driving with your cruise control on and you hit a slick spot on the road as your cruise control will remain on and try to power the car through the slick spot. This can cause your vehicle to hydroplane out of control when you least expect it to. Cruise control is a feature that is installed on all new vehicles and should still be an option on most older vehicles even going back to the ’90s. While cruise control technology has been updated over the years the basic function of cruise control is to make sure that your vehicle maintains a steady speed depending on whatever speed to you set it to.
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If you do start to hydroplane, let up on the gas, hold the steering wheel with both of your hands, and steer in the direction of the skid. Once you’re back in control, you might want to pull over a bit to get your bearings and regroup. Conventional cruise control doesn’t use cameras or radars to sense the presence of another car or vehicle ahead of yours. Such systems don’t decelerate if the vehicle in front slows due to any reason or when there’s an accident ahead in your lane. So, you will continue to cruise at a selected speed even if your car aquaplanes.
Rain can make Texas roads treacherous. Here's how to stay safe. - Houston Chronicle
Rain can make Texas roads treacherous. Here's how to stay safe..
Posted: Sat, 23 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Cruise Control Doesn’t Detect Hazards and Road Conditions
He began writing automotive content in June of 2021 and joined MotorBiscuit as a contributor in 2023. But inclement weather, like rain or snow, presents challenges best handled by attentive driver inputs. Still, in dry conditions, this feature makes highway travel an easier experience. Normally in wet conditions, lifting your foot off the accelerator transfers weight to the front of the car and slows you down enough to allow your vehicle to regain traction.
Come up to speed
Cruise control is designed to make sure that your vehicle maintains a certain speed regardless of what kind of road surface you are driving on. The whole thing, no matter the mechanics of the system, is run through a cruise control computer which tells the cruise control when the car has reached the desired speed or when it’s falling away from the desired speed. It’s also able to tell the system when the brake pedal has been pressed so that it doesn’t try and fight against the driver, and instead deactivates the cruise system.
Of course, for most drivers, if you’re begin to feel like the amount of acceleration is unsafe, a simple tap on the brake will kick cruise off, no problem. So, unless something is wrong with your cruise control system, if you’re using it in the rain and you encounter a situation where the car begins to lose control, the cruise control system will be turned off immediately. What that’s saying is that as soon as a car on cruise in heavy rain begins to hydroplane or skid or experience some other loss of control, cruise control kicks off. The only way to stop wheels from spinning and maintain control is to immediately reduce power.
Even cars older than the 1990s will kill the cruise control from even the briefest tap on the brakes; if a cruise setup keeps accelerating, something is very wrong. Continental is a developer and supplier of cruise control systems for a number of automakers. For that matter, though, even without the cruise engaged, high speed under the aforesaid conditions is dangerous in and of itself. You really shouldn't be driving at 70 mph in slippery conditions, cruise or no cruise. A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car. A resident of Kilgore, Texas, she was traveling between Gladewater & Kilgore.
Under What Conditions Should You Not Be Using Cruise Control?
In most cases, you’ll skim only a short distance before the tyres regain their purchase on the road; your vehicle will aquaplane whether you’ve got cruise control on or not. To use cruise control, you can typically press buttons on your steering wheel to activate the system, set your speed, adjust your speed up or down within the system, and deactivate the system. Using cruise control lets you set a speed for your car to maintain even if you take your foot off the gas.
As it begins to rain the rainwater will create puddles on the road surface. Back to Google… the top entry I found was written by someone who clearly assumed that cruise control was some dim-witted force that could be tricked in wet weather. And, that if your vehicle began to aquaplane, which is the root cause of this myth, that cruise control will cause the vehicle to speed up out of control.
The conventional cruise control merely maintains a selected speed, while adaptive cruise control also keeps a safe distance from a car or vehicle in front. One time when I was giving my step father’s dad a ride home I was using cruise control on the highway and the road surface was somewhat wet. As I was driving there were two distinct times where my back wheels lost grip to the surface of the road and started spinning uncontrollably. If you are driving down the road with your cruise control on your car doesn’t realize that the road surface may have lost some of its grip from the rainwater and continue to accelerate forward as if there was no rain on the road. Hydroplaning is one of the most common car accidents in the rain because drivers can lose control.
Unless you are driving on a sufficiently steep downhill gradient, in which case gravity takes over and you will speed up even with no throttle input. Cruise control is best used on relatively straight stretches of road when conditions are good. Cruise control does not have the ability to detect conditions or approaching hazards; it won’t slow down automatically for a corner or braking cars. If the road you’re on has corners with recommended speeds lower than the enforced speed limit, it’s best not to use cruise control. Driving at high speeds on wet roads might cause your vehicle to lose traction and hydroplane because your tires spin too quickly to grasp the surfaces effectively.
Allstate also has a post on its website outlining the dangers of using cruise control in the rain and why you shouldn’t do it. And the amazing thing is that that opinion was never correct, not even in 1958 when cruise control arrived on the scene. Cruising in bad weather can lead to seasickness, so you'll want to take immediate steps to ensure you won't be confined to your cabin with a stomach ache. Some options include taking an over-the-counter medication like Dramamine or Bonine, using an acupressure wristband, or applying a patch like Transderm Scop before you step on board. McDaniel said it’s important to listen to announcements and be very clear with the situation on board. It’s imperative that you get the most up-to-date information from the staff who know it best and don’t rely on rumors or hearsay.
You may also be surprised to know that you shouldn’t use cruise control in a brand new car. To learn more about why you shouldn’t use cruise control in a brand new car click here. If you do see a patch of ice that you cannot avoid it’s good to slow down before you hit the ice patch so that you will have more control of your vehicle when you hit the ice patch. The cruise on Norwegian Spirit (with a capacity of just over 2,000 guests) left from Southampton, England, and planned to make stops in the Netherlands, Norway, and Iceland — none of which they reached.
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