Is It Safe to Drive in the Rain With Cruise Control On?

Table Of Content

• When coupled with rain, cruise control can lead to disastrous — and potentially deadly — results.
• Wheel Alignment vs. Balance: What’s the Difference?
• Other reasons to avoid using cruise control
• Tips for driving in the rain as a bus driver
• Avoid Cruise Control On Slippery Roads
• Tips for driving in the rain as a truck driver
• Cruise Control Doesn’t Detect Hazards and Road Conditions

State Farm notes it’s also good practice to dim the dashboard lights, which can reduce glare. Additionally, avoid looking at oncoming headlights and ventilate your car to help reduce fog forming inside your windows. Remember also to give other vehicles more room and advance notice of your intentions. Avoiding sudden stops and being careful when driving through puddles are also smart tips for driving in the rain. That said, no cruise control system on the market today will just keep accelerating after any sort of control loss happens, and hydroplaning does not make you go faster until you fly off the road and crash into a Chipotle. “First of all, you have to have a certain depth of water for hydroplaning.

Vehicle Safety Systems Struggle to See in Rain - AAA Newsroom

Vehicle Safety Systems Struggle to See in Rain.

Posted: Thu, 14 Oct 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]

When coupled with rain, cruise control can lead to disastrous — and potentially deadly — results.

The car’s computer identifies the vehicle’s speed and the cruise control module maintains the existing speed. Cruise control is convenient for long stretches of driving and it can keep you from speeding if you set your speed to the correct limit. However, if the road conditions are rainy or snowy, cruise control can be dangerous. To use cruise control safely, it’s best to know when you should and shouldn’t use it. [9]  Using cruise control on the highway makes your driving more predictable to other drivers.

Rain, snow can affect adaptive cruise control - The Providence Journal

Rain, snow can affect adaptive cruise control.

Posted: Sat, 06 Oct 2018 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Wheel Alignment vs. Balance: What’s the Difference?

” mapfreinsurance.com/blog/how-does-cruise-control-in-cars-work (accessed July 11, 2023). Lifehacker supports Group Black and its mission to increasegreaterdiversity in media voices and media ownerships.

Other reasons to avoid using cruise control

It was raining, though not excessive, when her car suddenly began to hydroplane and literally flew through the air. So, if you do want to use cruise control in the wet, go for it, but just like you would if you weren’t using it, set the speed a little lower than the signposted limit. And make sure your tyres are in good condition and inflated to the correct pressure. In fact, the increased level of road hazards is also one of the main reasons drivers test get canceled during heavy downpours. Lower the temperature inside your car quickly by cracking a window if your vent system doesn’t help. Staying safe while driving in the rain is simple if you make a conscious effort to employ these safety precautions.

Add to that poorly maintained tyres (low grip, under or over-inflated) and you’ve got a recipe for disaster and cruise control has nothing to do with it. In a car with a fly-by-wire throttle then the system will be, obviously, an electronic arrangement. But, in both scenarios the system is designed to increase or decrease the engine’s power, which speeds up or slows the car down. The cruise control doesn’t usually touch the car’s brakes, it works on the throttle only. And if you’ve got a car with an automatic gearbox then the gears will change without affecting the cruise control.

If you have traction control or electronic stability control fitted to your car (and you don’t turn it off) there is no reason you should not use cruise control in the rain. However, if you don’t, using cruise control when it’s raining or (worse) icy, is a bad idea. When she explained to the highway patrolman what had happened he told her something that every driver should know NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON. She had thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain. The next part of the argument is cornering and cruise control. Cruise control is simply a way of maintaining a set speed, it has no way of working out what’s on the road, what the corner’s like or whether you need to brake before the bend in the road.

Keep a greater distance between your vehicle and the car in front of you. Stopping your vehicle will be more difficult when driving in the rain. Maintain a distance of several car lengths between your car and other vehicles. This will allow you to maintain full control of your vehicle and adjust the speed of your automobile according to how the road is being driven.

Avoid Heavy Braking

He came up with the idea after travelling with his lawyer who would slow down when listening to a conversation and speed up when talking. Teeter was one of the finest automotive engineers of his time and his patent for cruise control was filed in 1948 and launched on the Chrysler Imperial in 1958; and was standard fit on all Cadillacs of the time. Your foot won’t be on the accelerator during cruise control, so your braking might take longer if there’s any danger ahead. This slow speed is unlikely to be a risk factor as an isolated element.

Cruise Control Doesn’t Detect Hazards and Road Conditions

According to the Federal Highway Administration, from 2007 to 2016, more than 800,000 car crashes were caused by wet pavements, resulting in more than 300,000 injuries and more than 4,000 deaths in the U.S. Cruise control can be both a lifesaver and a nightmare for drivers. [5] “6 Cruise Control Safety Tips You Should Never Ignore,” Marisol Pereira and Carrie Adkins, getjerry.com/advice/6-cruise-control-safety-tips-you-should-never-ignore-by-marisol-pereira (accessed April 27, 2022). Avoid any area of the road where you can see the water has accumulated. During the summer, grime, oil, and other debris accumulate on the roadways.

When cruise control detects that your tires are starting to spin, it corrects this by increasing vehicle speed. This can lead to hydroplaning, which means your vehicle spins out of control at high speeds. If this occurs while using cruise control, the use of breaks on your car can lead you to lose control and potentially spin out as both the brakes and tire will fail to gain any traction. Cruise control gives many drivers a sense of security when driving on the road, from utilizing less gas to helping maintain a constant speed. However, when coupled with rain, this can lead to disastrous — and potentially deadly — results. Likewise, winter driving carries with it a similar set of perils.

Always try to avoid starting off at a slow speed and racing off. When rain falls on top of it, those elements may form a coating on the street’s surface, making it very slippery. Unless you are going on a steep downward grade, that gravity means you will speed up even if you don’t use the throttle. Turn in the direction of the skid — the direction the front of your car wants to go — until you regain full control and the car has slowed on its own. Our 2023 Impact Report highlights how we partner with our customers and invest in our people and our organization to drive sustainability and positive impact.

Once you reach the desired miles per hour, press the “set speed” button to maintain it. If you want to go faster, press the appropriate button for an extra one or two mph. Conversely, hit the indicated deceleration button to slow down a little bit. Conventional cruise control doesn’t use cameras or radars to sense the presence of another car or vehicle ahead of yours.

And, because all the systems are interlinked, cruise control will be killed. They’ll trundle out that wonderful line about how you should never, ever, ever use cruise control when there’s water on the road, or it’s raining, or, whatever because your car will speed up. So, you will continue to cruise at a selected speed even if your car aquaplanes.

Motive’s fleet safety solution maps weather conditions in fleet view and helps fleet managers plan the entire route in advance with safety in mind, simplifying the process of vehicle fleet management. You may know this already — but the highway patrolman told me that you should NEVER drive in the rain with your cruise control on. He said if you did and hydroplaned (which I did) that when your tires were off the road your car would accelerate to a high rate of speed (which it did).