Safe Efficient Cruise modification
 

Experience shows that cruise control COSTS GAS....... No serious hypermiler uses cruise control....... You let it lose speed going up a hill, and use "Georgia Overdrive" on the downhill side. You may do pulse and glide under some circumstances, etc. Cruise tries to maintain absolute speed regardless of terrain, not to mention not making those small speed corrections drivers make constantly for safety..... easing up a bit on a blind hill or corner on a two lane road in anticipation of that farmer with a load of hay just over the hill, or seeing children playing kick ball next to the highway.....knowing that a kid or dog might run out in front of you..........or passing a car stopped on the side of the road, etc........

In short cruise is both dangerous, and inefficient. It has little to commend it except for insurance against exceeding the speed limit, and giving your foot a rest from time to time........ which unfortunately puts your foot farther away from the brake!

I invented a safety cruise recently which I put on my pickup which has 3.07:1 gearing and a 4.3 V6, rendering cruise completely unusable......... If you try to use cruise, it will constantly shift for the hills, etc.

It works like this. I have a spring loaded idler linkage that blocks the throttle linkage forcing you to push against a stiff spring to accelerate. The cruise control cable attaches to this linkage and pulls it away so you can accelerate. It only blocks it on the acceleration side, so you can let off the gas easily and normally, and when below the set cruise speed, it is completely beyond your travel and you don't feel it at all. The result is that the pickup drives completely normally, the pedal feels completely normal...........until you reach your set cruise speed, at which time the linkage provides resistance that feels like a throttle stop, but is spring loaded, so you can push it, but with considerably more effort. This allows you to rest your foot on the pedal without worrying about looking down and finding yourself going 80 mph. If you rest against the linkage and your cruise speed is 65, you will automatically maintain 65, but you can slow down and speed up below that speed as if you didn't have the cruise at all.

Here's the fly in the soup........... I don't have a way to pull the spring pressure off, so before you set the cruise, you have pretty stiff throttle. Ultimately I will install some sort of 12V linear actuator, or a diaphragm to pull the pressure off. This unit doesn't have a diaphragm cruise, but an electromechanical cruise.

Any thoughts or suggestions??

Sorry, but cruise control is NOT a "safety hazard" on level flat roadways. In the hills you're 100% right, but not when you can see as far as the horizon.

My Insight has an Eco button which softens up the CC to very moderate acceleration; it hardly raises the CVT ratio even while accelerating so revs are minimal. I sometimes try to drive by foot but it seems to have no distinguishable effect on FE - though sometimes I feel the CC does a better job than I do.

Eco mode off, that's a whole different story.

I once rented a car for a road trip and Enterprise gave me a Grand Prix.

It was not my choice.

I drove through some bed and breakfast town, hit the "resume" button on my cruise control, and it accelerated pretty hard back to where it had been set.

I am not sure that it was necessarily safe or economical.

On hills I can beat my cruise control for fuel efficiency but no way on the flat.

When using cruise I still rest my foot on the accelerator, I just no longer need to apply pressure.

The off button is right beside my thumb, or a quick tap on the brake pedal, not complicated if you see that car on the side of the road, a blind corner or anything else you would slow down for.

Most of all cruise control helps prevent fatigue. Most of my drives are long, 4-6 hours of driving at a time. Cruise control keeps me relaxed as I am not constantly checking and adjusting my speed.

Of course I don't use cruise control in inclement weather, poor road conditions, gravel, or in the winter. Your version would be good for those situations.

While cruise control is probably not inherently unsafe........ it is unsafe the way most people use it.... If you use it like Saskwatchian does, resting your foot on the gas pedal, and maintain the same level of alertness as in normal driving....... yes........ it's safe. I don't see many people doing that. Anything that increases reaction time, or is part of a pattern of reduced alertness and increased reaction time is unsafe in that context. That unfortunately is the rule, not the exception. One could easily say that using a cell phone while driving is quite safe also.......... It all depends on the judgment of the "nut behind the wheel". Those who claim that they can't beat cruise for efficiency on "flat ground"....... must live in West Texas ......... If you want efficiency on "flat ground", the very best efficiency is to be had with a simple hand throttle........ it beats cruise all to hell in efficiency. I know that......... I've done it......... actual "flat ground" is virtually nonexistent in most of the world.
I thought I'd offer this concept for anybody who wanted to duplicate it.......... It definitely offers several major advantages over cruise control. It basically just acts as a tactile speed limit while allowing you to drive manually at the same time.

Howard

If I keep my foot on the pedal for long I occasionally get severe leg cramps.
I like to move my legs about every once in a while. I can do that thanks to my CC.

I prefer to follow other traffic in the right lane at a safe distance. That will usually be semis. I need to regulate the speed to match their variances in speed. It forces me to keep my attention to the road all the time.

The cramping you get with keeping your foot on the pedal is from the tension of holding just the right position....... You can't just rest your foot on the pedal, you must pay attention to the speedometer and to traffic and modulate the position of the pedal constantly. Trying to maintain a speedometer based speed is probably the most stressful. A sensor that controlled the distance to the car ahead would be a real asset. Most city folks follow way too close, which does not help at all. It means that your throttle management is more critical, and more rapid......... and far more stressful.


Howard

Has anyone on ecomodder made a cruise control for DWL?

Or one for a Civic HX?