Serving the Gainesville and Hawthorne Florida Area
Cruise Control
Adaptive Cruise Control
Self Driving Cars
Cruise control diagnosis: $25 to $100
Repair:$100 up
(Prices good for most domestic or import cars and light trucks)
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Unless you have the base model of car, your vehicle probably has cruise control. The idea is simple: on a long drive it's nice to not have to keep your foot on the gas all the time, and watch your speed. Pretty easy if your car's running well to creep up in speed and get a ticket. Old Cruise Control
On the old cruise control you would turn it on, then set it to a speed, usually by holding a button. The car would then hold that speed, operating the gas for you. If you hit the brakes, the cruise control would disengage. Normally you could re-engage it with a "resume" button.
Problems with the old cruise control
Traffic Deaths: asleep at the wheel
From the start critics said cruise control would kill people and it probably has. If you fall asleep on cruise, it MIGHT keep you up to speed as you drive into a tree. Then again, plenty of people hit trees with vehicles not equipped with cruise control.
Hydroplaning: Cruise control in the rain
If it's raining heavily, TURN OFF YOUR CRUISE CONTROL!!! Here's why. Tires lose traction on wet roads. If you hit a puddle, your tires will hydroplane: picture slipping on tile in flip-flops! At this point, they have ZERO traction.
You've probably noticed on a wet road if you try to accelerate too fast, you'll spin your wheels!
As any experienced driver knows, when you hit a wet spot in the road, you just keep your wheel straight, and stay off the brakes. Don't try to speed up or slow down: just get past the wet, slick spot.
If you have cruise on, it will do the WORST THING POSSIBLE!!! The cruise control will sense the car slowing down as it hits the water puddle. So it will FLOORBOARD THE GAS PEDAL! This will FOR SURE break the tires loose, and eliminate any traction you might have had.
Adaptive Cruise Control
I just drove a 2023 Toyota Corolla which had adaptive cruise control AND Lane Tracing Assist. I was VERY impressed. The car detects traffic in front of you and slows down. Once it slammed on the brakes before I reacted to traffic completely stopped on the Interstate. When the adaptive cruise is on,
you can engage "Lane Tracing Assist"
Lane Tracing Assist
Activated by a button on the wheel, this uses the onboard camera to identify the white and yellow lines on the road, and the motuon of cars in front of you, to calculate the center of the lane. If you drift over, it corrects you., It tries gently to turn the wheel. giving pressure on the wheel back towards center of lane. It also warns you if you are going off the road.
So is this a self driving car?
Darn close! Of course I HAD to set it all and let go of the wheel. It WORKED!!! It steered perfectly around curves, kept an ideal distance following the car in front of me.
Scary potential? Not so much. It will only drive itself for about a minute, then it will drop out of cruise AND lane assist, displaying a message saying something like "Lane assist is NOT designed to replace a human driver: Shame on you!!!"
You can press "resume" and SOMETIMES get your settings back, but it clearly punishes you for trying to make it a self driving car.
Normal Lane Assist Operation
If you keep your hands on the wheel and drive, the computer that's controlling the lane assist will NOT drop out every minute. It won't drop out until you turn it off. What you WILL notice is sometimes the wheel will "pull" a bit to the right or left. This is the car correcting itself when YOU veer off course for a sec. When it starts making too many corrections, it will turn off and scold you.
Annoying things about adaptive cruise control/lane assist and solutions
The adaptive cruise control maintains a safe following distance, and often it slows down so discreetly that you think you're following someone doing your desired speed, when really you've slowed down quite a bit. Additionally, when passing a slower vehicle it will let off the gas suddenly JUST as you are pulling over to pass. Likewise, as you change lanes, the lane assist tries to keep you from going over to the next lane. It doesn't jerk the wheel out of your hand, but it gives it a little tug!
One solution is to drive around it: put your foot on the gas pedal and accelerate to pass somebody. When you take your foot off, you'll let the cruise take back over.
How cruise control works
Older cars cruise control
The first vehicles had an analog controller that operated off the speedometer cable. A vacuum operated diaphragm pulled a cable which was attached to the throttle. A vacuum "dump" line went to the brake pedal, which would turn the cruise off if you hit the brakes. So on older cruise control, it can stop working from a bad vacuum line.
Newer cars cruise control
As cars did away with such things as speedometer cables, and started having computer controls,cruise controls were run by the computer. Many still had an actuator with an additional cable which replaced the old vacuum "motor" or servo. On these cars the electric servo can go bad.
The newest vehicles cruise control
The newest vehicles have no direct connection between the gas pedal and the throttle. The throttle is opened by a servo motor controlled by the computer. So cruise control is done by the same servo motor that opens the throttle normally.
Really cruise on such a vehicle is just software: It uses the vehicle speed sensor and throttle control motor to "do" cruise control, but there aren't any "cruise control specific" items you can fix if your cruise goes out.
How this stuff WILL fail eventually
The switches on the steering wheel are probably thin film switches: essentially a bubble which when compressed completes a circuit. As they age, they can make bad contact. Of course the entire switch "cluster" could be replaced. As with any high tech car, you'll probably find SOME things that don't work on an older or high mileage one.
Auto, Car, and Truck Article List
A
ABS: Anti-Lock Brake Systems
ADVANCE: Car ignition timing
ALTERNATORS and Car Battery
AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS
B
BAD CAR DESIGNS
Bad Drivers: How NOT to drive
BATTERIES: Auto, Car or Truck
BELTS AND HOSES
BEARINGS
BODY AND BUMPER REPAIRS
BRAKE REPAIRS: Car or Truck
C
Car Washing and Care
CARBURETORS:Car & Truck
CHECK ENGINE LIGHT
CLEANING: Engine Cleaning
CLUTCH REPAIRS: Car & Truck
COIL (IGNITION)
COMPRESSION: Car Engine
COMPUTER CAR CONTROLS
CRUISE CONTROL / LANE GUARD
CV JOINT OR CV AXLES
D
DISTRIBUTORS (IGNITION)
E
ELECTRIC WIRING REPAIR
ENGINES: Car & Truck
ENGINE CLEANING
EXPANSION PLUGS
F
FILTERS: OIL, AIR, ETC.
Flywheels, dual mass flywheels
FREEZE PLUGS
FUEL AIR MIXTURE
FUEL INJECTION: Car & Truck
FUEL PUMPS: Car & Truck
G
GAGES AND "IDIOT LIGHTS"
GASKETS AND SEALS
GLASS: WINDOWS AND WINDSHIELDS
H
HEADS & HEAD GASKET
HOSES AND BELTS
I
"IDIOT LIGHTS" AND GAGES
IGNITION COIL
IGNITION TIMING: Car & Truck
J
AUTO JACKS: lifting cars safely
K
L
LEAN "Car runs lean"
LIGHTS: WARNING OR "IDIOT LIGHTS"
Limp Home Mode
M
MIL Light
MANUAL TRANSMISSIONS
N
NO START: Car Won't Start
O
OIL CHANGES
OIL: What's right for your car?
OIL LIGHT ON OR GAGE LOW
P
PCV Valve
Q
R
RADIATORS: Car and Truck
RICH: Car runs rich
S
SEALS AND GASKETS
SELF DRIVING CARS / CRUISE
SERVICE ENGINE SOON LIGHT
SPARK PLUGS
STARTERS: Auto, Truck
T
THERMOSTATS
TIMING: IGNITION TIMING
TIMING BELT & TIMING CHAIN
TIRE REPAIR
TRANSMISSIONS: AUTOMATIC
TRANSMISSIONS: MANUAL
U
V
VACUUM ADVANCE
WARNING LIGHTS OR "IDIOT LIGHTS"
Car Washing and Care
W
Washing and cleaning your car
WATER PUMP REPAIR
WINDOWS AND WINDSHIELDS
WIRING REPAIR
X
Y
Z
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