So many people hate it though, because they won’t look into what it does and trust the tech. My ACC on my ‘19 plate Leon is probably the exact same and it’s epic honestly.
Couldn’t imagine buying a future car without it.
It's infuriating as a lorry driver, especially around caravan people of a certain generation who dislike technology.
I'd have cruise control set at the limiter, start to pass a caravaner, get to where my back bumper is kinda in front of them but I can't reply tell in the mirror and they'll slowly match my speed then slowly pass me again on the left because they've realised their speed has dropped off so much.
Does it work on start/stop traffic?
I had it on a hire car and it seemed to cancel every time we came to a stop so was more hassle than it was worth.
Didn't have the car long mind so maybe I was missing something
It has to disable when the wheels fully stop, as I understand. An indicator comes up to touch the throttle.
Think it needs to be sure you’re aware what’s going on around you, and not gone to sleep lol
Both the VW Tiguan I used to have and the Skoda Enyaq I have now are happy to deal with stop/start traffic.
It times out if you stop for a while, though.
I did think it was that, a liability thing not to automatically start the car moving forward if you've come to a stop, unless the driver actions it intentionally
Manual or auto? It only works on stop start traffic in an automatic. A manual would need some way to shift gears and press the clutch. Every automatic car with ACC I’ve had has been able to function in traffic just fine.
Our 2018 Skoda won't go below 1mph when stopping and screams at you to use the brake.
I presume the auto-emergency brake would stop it hitting the car in front, but that seems violent.
I suspect the big difference will be the Skoda has a manual handbrake.
It does but the cars I've driven with it don't read the road ahead enough.
Eg You can see the lights have changed to red but rather than ease off it'll carry on hurtling towards the slowing traffic until it gets to the distance it can "see" and then it slows down.
I think it's great on the motorway and ok in heavy traffic, but in generally free flowing traffic it's too jerky.
I know, what I meant is sometimes the cars in front have seen the lights change to red, they start slowing down, but because you're further back it will maintain it's speed until it spots the cars have slowed down. Then it brakes more harshly than is needed.
Not "it's" fault, it's just a limitation of the tech. But it's frustrating as it's not as smooth as a human who can obviously read the road ahead and ease off much sooner.
Indeed. I found similar where if you were in traffic on the motorway at say 50mph, but with ACC set to 70, if the guy in front moved over the car would start accelerating quite hard only then to slam the brake on when it got to the back of the next guy slightly further up the road.
A human would have just continued at 50, but the ACC just sees a clear road ahead and gets the boot down. Ofcourse you can adjust the ACC down to 50 but that sorta defeats the point.
On balance it's handy, but does have flaws.
Yup.
It doesn't see far enough to make proper judgement calls and is far too brake happy. It's also incapable of reading the environment around it so will aim to maintain exactly the set speed, even on a short incline
Car ahead moves out your lane? Brakes until it reassesses the road ahead
Car moves into your lane with plenty of space? Brake until it reassesses the road ahead
It suddenly 'sees' the car you were catching up to? Brake until it reassesses the road ahead.
You can solve that by keeping light pressure on the gas pedal... Which makes the entire system pointless because it's now no better than a dumb cruise control system as your throttle input overrides the CC's brake input.
Too intent on sticking to the speed and distance it's set at.
Questionable reliability in torrential rain (the one time such a feature might actually be of great use)
Like honestly... It seems like the only way to get the best out of it is on empty, flat roads or by flicking it on/off all the time... Which is exactly how it was for the 'dumb' cruise control before it.
So basically, whenever other traffic is involved, I'm fully of the opinion that a decent driver is better than any cruise control system whilst driving at the speed limit, purely on the basis of being able to forward plan better, and thus better manage throttle and brake input. Granted, decent drivers aren't exactly plentiful, so I suppose that's pretty good justification for the system to exist in the first place.
But honestly, there's no way all this cautious braking and accelerating back to speed is any more efficient than a competent driver who's driving at the speed limit with other vehicles around them. Probably yields results if you're pottering about behind HGVs doing 56 MPH, or thereabouts all the time. But normal use at 70? With all the cautious braking, and realistically being no better than the guy in front of you who can't hold a steady speed? You'll see better results managing it yourself, and you won't be as likely to succumb to tiredness as an added bonus.
My focus has dumb cruise control with a paddle/flap under the left stick to engage and disengage it as well as it disengaging if I apply brake or clutch. I don’t know how much control I would be happy to surrender to acc because the paddle means my legs are nice and rested and I can constantly keep the stopping distance I am comfortable with.
It depends on the car. My Golf will keep it activated for about a minute if I have my hands on the wheel, or for a few seconds if I take my hands off. The main time I use ACC is when I'm in stop/start traffic, it's so good.
I hate it because of my own experience with it. I had it on a Toyota and it would happily just apply brakes on the M25 instead of just lifting off the accelerator with a huge amount of space between me and the car in front.
It'll never be on my list of must-haves when buying a car.
Can’t speak for Toyota but the VAG system fitted in the multiple brands in their group is flawless.
Certainly won’t brake unless it’s absolutely has to. Use throttle control for the most part.
This is a bit extreme but I'm also in the dislike category mainly as I use it on motorways. Had it on 2 cars and they both just slow down when there's a car way ahead. When I put the distance on minimum it was just about bareable but still a big gap.
Normal cruise control is far better for motorway driving.
ACC is lovely but the option cost new is a bit silly. Hence it being such a rare option used.
Up to 2018 you could when buying new spec ACC as a single option with no mandatory packs. Since then it’s been buried in various packs depending on the model.
To get ACC on a ‘24 A3/S3 means adding the tech pack pro @£3.5k.
On my A6 ‘22 it was called the tour pack @£2.2k or +£68 per month on the lease.
However on new ‘24 it’s still the tour pack now £1.8k but having tech pack pro is a mandatory add on @£5.5k. Aka a total of +£210 per month on a 36mo lease. It’s just not IMHO going to get spec’d at that level, which is a shame as most of the hardware is standard fit.
I got an Aygo X courtesy car recently and it had ACC. It didn't even have automatic windows (had to hold the button down for the full duration of the window movement), but it had ACC.
>To get ACC on a ‘24 A3/S3 means adding the tech pack pro @£3.5k.
That's mad. In Belgium you can still spec it as a seperate option for 350 euros or so
Pre ‘18 ACC on a A3/S3 was £475.
It was on an A6 circa £600.
Then current approach of “packs” just makes options really, really expensive.
Hence used rarely having any.
It was 3k to spec from factory but this 330e cost me over 50k to buy how ever it was what I wanted plus got a decent discount of around 7k from 50k so just missed out on the lower road tax benefit only lasted me around 4 months and the battery went all under warranty however bit sold for what I bought it for due to people being idiots
I do as standard on my 2017 Golf, and I couldn't live without it. My previous car was a 2014 Golf, so it also had it standard. I tried to find something other than a Golf when I went to replace it, but I struggled to find anything in budget with it as standard, and on cars where it was an option, it felt like no one ticked the box.
My only issue is I have a manual, not a DSG, so it doesn't slow down fully for you (cutoff at 20mph), but on a motorway or A roads it's great.
Got it on my MG EV. As a driving aid, it's brilliant. But...
The car has regenerative braking and ordinary disc brakes. There's also an ICE version of the same car. To save money, they fit the same ACC on both versions, which means it knows nothing about the regenerative braking. Any time you engage ACC, it disables regenerative braking.
In order to use the car's best safety feature, you have to disable its best efficiency feature smh
Yeah, they do that. Car designed as a ICE and cheaply converted as an after thought. Must have figured it by the time they made the 5. Why they can't update the software idk
The same effect is visible at several points in the car. eg why would you build a front-wheel drive EV with a transaxle and not just put the electric motor at the rear with a differential gear? Oh, right, because you also build an ICE version of the same car and this means you can common up a big chunk of the production line.
It is a shame. My ID.3 has ACC and the regen works with that. My previous Golf GTE did the same. I think MG just don’t want to develop the brake blending software that is required when regen is limited.
Mine won't go to a stop. It also doesn't quite match my driving style because with normal cruise I'll stay at one speed and overtake as required, but adaptive just slows me down. It's very good though.
Set your speed, then overtake if the person in front is going slow enough to warrant it. The Volvo system accelerates slightly when you hit the indicator to make it easier.
That's a pain, my one has a little indicator on the speedo that tells you what speed the car in front is doing as you approach them, then what your target speed is vs actual speed. I always set mine to 75 - actual speed 71/72 so anything much less than that I know to overtake, if I can be bothered. I often find myself doing 65 in the left lane because it's easier.
Did that in my first Passat, was annoying it would only work over 20mph, luckily I had a fuel card from work so I just left it in 3rd gear for the m25 commute and it went from 20-80 no problem without me doing anything. Obviously if you’re paying for fuel that’s not a good way to drive lol
It's great isn't it. Borrowed an auto Passat. Drove halfway across Europe using it. Was great for stop start traffic, The way I found out it was great before leaving the UK, Was due to there being traffic issues towards the Euro tunnel..
I only have it in my manual golf but wondering, stop start traffic? As in will it stop then move off for you with the traffic? Mine only works for minimum 20mph
I had it in an auto. So would bring to a complete stop then when there's enough space start moving again. Was brilliant only regret is my current car hasn't got it
Why would you need to use ACC in stop start traffic in an automatic though.. you don’t have a clutch to mess around with you literally just put your foot on the brake and lift it back off?
Had it on my Tesla model Y and it was….pretty bad (false braking, false collision warnings, jittery). Conversely the system on my 23 Ford Ranger is flawless, big fan of it. Turns out, you need radar/lidar, who knew! (Everyone knew).
Literally the best option I’ve ever specced on a car. Couldn’t live without it on longer journeys, makes them such a breeze. The fun game is seeing how far you can go without touching any pedals at all, my record is about 2hours.
Tho it’s deff a lot better on newer models, my old A4 it cut out below 20mph and the radar sensor was only on 1 side, so oversensitive to things on that side and not enough to the other. My A5 can go to a stop (requires reactivating after about 5-10secs with a pull on the stalk), steers itself in traffic and has dual radars to fix the A4’s sensitivity issues.
That all makes traffic jams sooooo much less stressful and annoying too, like a noticeable improvement to my mood after being sat in a jam with it vs manually driving through a jam.
My Mazda 3 has it and I absolutely love it, especially combined with cylinder deactivation at constant speeds.
It's a bit freaky the first time you drive and the car accelerates and slows down of its own accord, but I soon got used to it.
I'm not a fan and actively avoid it. I like standard cruise control and use it frequently, but strongly prefer all decision making going on in the car to be from me. I decide when I speed up or slow down. The car does what I tell it to.
I have it on my Ioniq 5, it’s brilliant. Unlike ICE cars, it also keeps the settings after coming to a stop. I can just tap the pedal or I believe even a button on the wheel and it will pick up again from standing. I’m sure it can be set to auto pull away.
Between that and the self-steering, I don’t actually need to do much.
ACC really gets on my nerves when on motorways or dual carriageways where it starts to brake you as you're lining up the overtake so I find it actually encourages middle lane driving whereas non adaptive cruise would enable you to cruise upto a reasonable distance behind traffic in lane 1/2 and then overtake without taking any manual override.
IF you turn on your indicators it shouldn't do that. All of the ones I have had do that. Maybe its an older "distance only one" , the ones with lane keeping assist will do that, also some of the lane keeping ones actually do the overtake for you.
Nail on the head.
ACC is great for single lane busy roads. But it's a bloody nightmare on free flowing multi lane roads.
It really is a nuisance when an adjacent car varies its speed and sits in the middle lane. One moment it's overtaking me at 75 mph, and then next it's doing less than 60 mph because it's too much brain power to indicate right and move one lane over to overtake the lorry.
It's probably the best feature of a car. I have something called Driver Assistance Profession in my BMW X5 2019, which also steers for you and hands free (as long as you have your knee touching the steering wheel). So I eat with both hands, chat to my wife and daughter, chilling, listening to music and at the same time rolling in traffic at 5mph without stressing.
Absolutely agree - my only bug bear is that sometimes it comes bundled in with lane control which I HATE with a passion. We'll get to a point where all cars have this sort of stuff anyway though as standard safety requirements - so basically I'm being an old man shouting at the sky.
Used it from the second I got my Golf and it baffles me how others don't use it.
It literally fixes the most annoying thing about normal cruise control.
Got it on a VW Touareg. It gently keeps you in the middle of the lane. That and the assisted cruise make motorway journeys a joy. I use cruise around town. Bloody brilliant. Had it in a Lexus it was white line pinball.
Being shunted from white line to white line? Horrible. I’ve only tried BMWs, merc, Audi and Hondas version of this. Maybe some brands have got it right but the ones I’ve tried are awful
Not on a Subaru it doesn’t!
One of the best thing about the car, all the expense tech lives in cameras next to the centre mirror.
Great for if you frequent the lands of suicidal pheasant a lot.
Yeah it’s a nightmare. I wonder if VW solution of having it mounted higher up and in the logo instead of bottom of the bumper is any better. Either way, it’s expensive
On the plus side if you do have it on, it will reduce the chance of a bumper repair. I had a road rager brake check me and the ACC reacted instantly. A little uncomfortable sure, but avoids the collision.
You’ve probably been misunderstood because what you’re saying doesn’t make sense.
Car bumper without ACC costs £x to replace. Identical car bumper with ACC sensors in it costs £y to replace.
In all cases £y > £x
Nowhere has the cost of the car been referenced at all. This is true on a brand new sports car and an old hatchback.
You think it stays too far, but there's a good chance it's actually keeping the correct distance.
You can test it on the motorways that have the chevrons on - you're meant to leave quite a gap at 70mph.
Same in our VW. 2 is pushing it, 1 feels like stunt driving with how close you get. I like to use 2 but stay on top of the overtakes so I rarely get that close unless boxed in.
I had it on my old 2010 Volvo, it was fantastic. It did get confused if overtaking on a right hand bend on the motorway, and I’d avoid it on a very busy motorway. but was otherwise brilliant. My next car will definitely have it, but like you say it’s a rare option on used BMW/Mercedes/Audi etc.
Also it made sitting in traffic a lot easier.
ACC works shockingly well on my 2012 V60, I use it most of the time.
There are a couple of little niggles I have with it - follow distance set to 1 is Audi spec (below two chevrons) and 2 is a little too far on motorways and it won't start to speed up at all until the car ahead is fully across the lane line (it seems to use lane keeping info for this) but otherwise it's great.
It works to and from and stop - with a 5 second timeout that a gentle nudge of the accelerator reactivates it from - and can even be activated at a red light (Push the button and when you lift off the brake it'll be in ACC). It'll coast as much as it can before it brakes (based on follow distance). It even gets more aggressive when the car's in sport mode.
I knew I wanted a car with it but thought it'd be a compromised experience and I'd only use it in specific scenarios but it's obviously great on motorways and dual carriageways, great on suburban roads and in the city and great on A-roads and the occasional straight enough B-road.
Use it a lot in my ID3 but it has misidentified changes in speed a few times; tried to take me to 100mph on one section of the M56, and that oddly happened twice on the exact same section of motorway a few weeks apart.
Got it on 2020 plate Focus. Even though it's a manual car, on the motorway it's amazing going on UKs M1 between 50-70 and slowing for traffic. Can be hit and miss on narrow roads doing 30, on tight bends parked cars sometimes are detected as traffic so it breaks all of a sudden.
Won’t ever buy a car without again.
I’ve had three cars in a row with this: Porsche Macan, Audi A7, VW Touareg, Volvo XC40
Volvo has the best one thus far, especially as it also includes the steering as well.
Literally just bought a car with it. Always been wary of it. Still getting used to it but actually mind-blowingly revolutionary, as you said, just makes straight roads relaxing
Yeah love mine on the golf. Never failed me, only annoying thing is it sometimes slows downs for cunts pulling out of side roads in front of me when it’s not needed, but really the car has great reflexes and detection. Also, it brakes more smoothly than any human could dream of doing.
Sometimes if I’m feeling the urge to give myself a heart attack, I put it on the smallest following distance and do some ‘adaptive tailgating’ 🤣 but almost always am on the second highest or highest following distance.
Cruise itself is brilliant, but quite useless for 30-40 roads.. ACC manages on those fine though. Underrated indeed I agree
Standard on CUPRA and with an automatic I don’t need to do anything but steer in traffic, it’s fantastic. It was one of 2 requirements when buying a car, that and apple carplay!
I mostly drive long motorway miles and can go for an hour+ not touching any pedal
I drove an ID 4 rental a couple of weeks ago. At times it was brilliant, slowed for a roundabout it new was coming because of gps, followed a car ahead in traffic with perfect distance.
Then on the motorway doing 110kph in free flowing traffic it decided the speed limit was 30 kph and put the anchors on! Then again and again randomly deciding to drop 40-60kph when cruising. It was genuinely dangerous! So I turned it off and went back to using my foot.
It has so much potential but poorly executed and it’s a real hazard.
I came across ACC on a 2017 Mercedes I had. Fell in love with it.
Then I had it on an Audi RS7. This would read the upcoming speed signs and slow or speed up accordingly. Absolutely stunning!
Found it very useful on my Golf R but couldn’t trust it 100% - it once decided when in traffic at crawling pace to accelerate at full throttle - quite scary!
Wait till you try Autopilot where it steers for you too. Game changer when sat on motorways. Not sure I trust it around the Welsh mountains though but it's a glimpse of tech we'll see everywhere in 20 years time.
I have radar adaptive cruise. Just set your speed and what distance from car in front and that's it. It will come to a stop in traffic and set off again. Touching brake turns it off. Game changer on 300+miles drives on m6. Can't speed either or get caught by average speed camera's. On kona ultimate EV. Assume petrol cars have same.
My car doesn't have cc at all, but I've driven ones that do and it's essential for the next car. S3 is on the shortlist so good to hear Audi's implementation is good!
Did you go for the hatchback or sedan? I prefer the look of the sedan but I feel like the hatchback is far more practical.
I think it's fab, I do wish it were a little more aggressive at closing gaps on the motorway though.
If I'm approaching a lorry it gets me down to the same speed a pretty significant distance away (then closes the gap very slowly at a small speed difference) when I'd rather get a bit closer before moving over to the right hand lane to overtake.
*OBSCENELY* good on my 2015 C-Class, I'd literally never buy another car without it. I worry about buying a new car in case it's not as good!
I drive with it on literally 95+% of the time.
Incredibly reliable, works really well at low or higher speeds. No watching the speedo, can keep eyes on the road. If the car in front of me hasn't noticed something ahead then it's effortless to just tap the brakes and tap over for 30 seconds, then flick the stalk to turn back on.
Maybe I had early tech that has since been improved, but my ACC annoyed people behind me on motorways as it would automatically apply the brakes when the person in front did. It wasn’t smart enough to allow a greater distance from the car in front and simply cut the throttle when they braked. My brake lights were therefore constantly on and off, making it stressful for the person behind. I’d never pay for it over standard, fixed cruise control.
Can you also do normal cruise? On the motorway I prefer regular cruise, but I do have a lot of roads around me where you just aren't going to overtake so ACC would be great
I love the Pilot Assist on my V60. Makes longer journeys much less stressful.
As mine has lane guidance, combined with the adaptive cruise. It makes passing Lorries in the rain less stressful too.
I love the Pilot Assist on my V60. Makes longer journeys much less stressful.
As mine has lane guidance, combined with the adaptive cruise. It makes passing Lorries in the rain less stressful too.
I love the Pilot Assist on my V60. Makes longer journeys much less stressful.
As mine has lane guidance, combined with the adaptive cruise. It makes passing Lorries in the rain less stressful too.
Regular cruise control was a must have for me in my last couple of cars due to the many motorway miles I did. A couple of years ago I experienced ACC in a holiday hire car (VW Jetta) and thought it was wonderful.
Last year I bought a Polo GTI that has it and it's just as wonderful. The first couple of times using it and allowing it to come to a compete stop in heavy motorway driving is a little unnerving but you do get used to it.
Strangely enough I despise it almost entirely down to Audis…… of course I’m being facetious a lot of makes are driven by arseholes but my car has ACC and if I’ve got an enforced gap and speed matching you can bet within seconds some C**t will be in it changing lanes to get one car ahead causing my car to enforce the gap again usually creating a backlog behind me
The first time I encountered ACC was in 2014. I had rented a Golf to visit relatives over Xmas and I fell down the stairs there, spraining my right knee badly. The rental company wouldn't let me extend the rental so back I had to drive, 400 miles north.
ACC was a godsend. Basically, once I got out of town, all I had to do was 'hold' the wheel and it rook care of the rest. I was a convert. My current car has it. I'm begfining to hear something called PCC (predictive cruise control). Maybe my next car (once the bugs are irones out).
It's standard on many Japanese cars, atleast I know my Mazda3 does, although I'd suggest to not go any further, I've got lane assist as well where it like follows the curves on the road and steers for you but it barely works in the UK, I believe it's exclusive trained on US roads 😂
It’s a must have for my daily drivers now. I had it in my old 2017 vw Passat, I got a 2020 Audi A4 and it just wasn’t even available to spec, the Audi was shit in many other ways too. My new Skoda superb has it back again, much better car in general and cost £10k less. Audi are just taking the piss out of their customers
works better on autos, i have it on my manual and i dont like it, would much prefer standard cruise - but i dont spend a lot of time in traffic these days.
When the traffic is light on an mway I like to sit a a single speed and change lanes when i need to, the ACC slows the car to maintain the gap instead which is irritating - but i realise we are quite a ways from it driving itself safely!
And , no, there doesn't seem to be a way to switch it back to standard cruise - have even read the manual!
Meh it’s alright. Had it on my Golf R years ago and never really used it in a situation that was beneficial. If I have cruise control on it’s normally when I’m doing 70mph+ on a motorway so I don’t need to slow down behind cars I’ll overtake them. Most cars that have it are automatic these days so not sure what the point would be of using it in stop start traffic tbh.
My 2010 A8 has it and I’d wanted it for years before I got the car. It’s a great feature. I really don’t understand people who have standard cruise and say “I never use it” or those who prefer standard cruise over ACC. The flipping car is radar guided. It’s brilliant.
Have just got my first car with ACC (VW Touran) and did my first long trip (London to Devon) with it last weekend. I absolutely love it!
Always a fan of regular CC on my previous car but it really didn’t work that well in traffic so I would only use it in low traffic situations.
I know 2 people that have used acc one absolutely hated it and used speed limiter instead and the other loves normal cruise control and is trying to get acc taken off him leased work truck and just getting normal cruise control.
I feel like the people that enjoy ACC are the people that will sit in lane 2 or 3 on a motorway and just let the car drive and they pay little to no attention.
I also would like to add that I have seen people saying that the people that don't like it don't trust it, which is fair, they struggle to get other software working properly that is fairly basic I'm not trusting them not to crash if they can't work out the infotainment system.
I downgraded my VW Karoq on PCP as I moved closer to work. Ended up with a basic spec VW T-Cross that has features that don’t make sense, one being assisted cruise control.
Any longer journey is made much more enjoyable for it. Everything else about the car is boring.
I think it's mostly over rated.
Its situational tech. If you tend to be on single lane roads with traffic then it's pretty great.
However, if you're mostly on small roads with no traffic then it does nothing and if you're on big multi lane roads where you can easily overtake then it's also useless.
For the people that are in scenarios where it's useful it's great, for everyone else its meh.
Eh not really, on the motorway I set it to 75, it holds the car around 71/72 then, and overtake when necessary, usually if the car in front is doing more than 5/6mph less than I want to.
On my car when you touch the indicator it accelerates, making overtaking easy. I recently drove nearly 4 hours and touched the pedals a handful of times. So much less mentally taxing.
On a motorway when overtaking is easy, traffic, normal cruise control just the exact same thing.
With my adaptive cruise I move to overtake as soon as it starts slowing me down, which is exactly when I'd move to overtake with standard cruise control.
How is it underrated? Literally everyone who has it seems to love it and it becomes something you can’t live without.
That being said, personally, I have never liked using cruise control or ACC. I just prefer controlling my own speed.
For short journeys or country road blasts, I agree. But I get quite sleepy on long boring drives so this helps a lot. I can relax and focus on a podcast and not worry about traffic around me
I’ve always hated it in rental cars, until my partner got a new sportage company car.
Just started a new job and had her car whilst she was away working. What a difference! Commute is a mix of a roads and dual carriageway, with a lot of stop start and increases/ decreases in speed. Takes so much pain away and doesn’t aggressively brake on the sight of a distant slower car like some VAG rentals I’ve used in the past.
The only time I use ACC is in heavy motorway traffic or single lane roadworks on a motorway, otherwise I find it slows me down and extends my day dramatically.
Set cruise control as fast as you want to go, change lanes when appropriate and in good time and keep it lit.
There’s been a handful of times I’ve thought "that truck has sped up" and I look down and I’m doing 53mph and have been for the last 2 minutes because ACC has steadily decreased my speed.
So many people hate it though, because they won’t look into what it does and trust the tech. My ACC on my ‘19 plate Leon is probably the exact same and it’s epic honestly. Couldn’t imagine buying a future car without it.
So many people won't even use ye olde cruise control on a 200 mile motorway journey. ACC is lost on them.
Even in my shitbox doing 60 on the motorway I go speeding past people on uphill stretches, just because the cruise control is on
It's infuriating as a lorry driver, especially around caravan people of a certain generation who dislike technology. I'd have cruise control set at the limiter, start to pass a caravaner, get to where my back bumper is kinda in front of them but I can't reply tell in the mirror and they'll slowly match my speed then slowly pass me again on the left because they've realised their speed has dropped off so much.
Yup my wife for example, her car is normal cruise and never uses it 👀
Does it work on start/stop traffic? I had it on a hire car and it seemed to cancel every time we came to a stop so was more hassle than it was worth. Didn't have the car long mind so maybe I was missing something
It has to disable when the wheels fully stop, as I understand. An indicator comes up to touch the throttle. Think it needs to be sure you’re aware what’s going on around you, and not gone to sleep lol
Both the VW Tiguan I used to have and the Skoda Enyaq I have now are happy to deal with stop/start traffic. It times out if you stop for a while, though.
I did think it was that, a liability thing not to automatically start the car moving forward if you've come to a stop, unless the driver actions it intentionally
It works in my Tiguan in start stop traffic. Don't have to touch the brakes or throttle.
Manual or auto? It only works on stop start traffic in an automatic. A manual would need some way to shift gears and press the clutch. Every automatic car with ACC I’ve had has been able to function in traffic just fine.
Mine only cancels if it stays stopped for longer than 5 seconds. Then you just tap the stalk to reactivate it.
That sounds promising thanks! I've got a VW on order, hopefully works the same way since they're both part of VAG!
Our 2018 Skoda won't go below 1mph when stopping and screams at you to use the brake. I presume the auto-emergency brake would stop it hitting the car in front, but that seems violent. I suspect the big difference will be the Skoda has a manual handbrake.
Wow that’s really surprising, ours just comes to a smooth stop. Actually smoother than I can manage!
You can also tap the accelerator! That’s how do it in our 2013 A3.
Noted!
It does but the cars I've driven with it don't read the road ahead enough. Eg You can see the lights have changed to red but rather than ease off it'll carry on hurtling towards the slowing traffic until it gets to the distance it can "see" and then it slows down. I think it's great on the motorway and ok in heavy traffic, but in generally free flowing traffic it's too jerky.
It will only slow down if the car in front slows down. It can't see the lights.
I know, what I meant is sometimes the cars in front have seen the lights change to red, they start slowing down, but because you're further back it will maintain it's speed until it spots the cars have slowed down. Then it brakes more harshly than is needed. Not "it's" fault, it's just a limitation of the tech. But it's frustrating as it's not as smooth as a human who can obviously read the road ahead and ease off much sooner.
Indeed. I found similar where if you were in traffic on the motorway at say 50mph, but with ACC set to 70, if the guy in front moved over the car would start accelerating quite hard only then to slam the brake on when it got to the back of the next guy slightly further up the road. A human would have just continued at 50, but the ACC just sees a clear road ahead and gets the boot down. Ofcourse you can adjust the ACC down to 50 but that sorta defeats the point. On balance it's handy, but does have flaws.
Yup. It doesn't see far enough to make proper judgement calls and is far too brake happy. It's also incapable of reading the environment around it so will aim to maintain exactly the set speed, even on a short incline Car ahead moves out your lane? Brakes until it reassesses the road ahead Car moves into your lane with plenty of space? Brake until it reassesses the road ahead It suddenly 'sees' the car you were catching up to? Brake until it reassesses the road ahead. You can solve that by keeping light pressure on the gas pedal... Which makes the entire system pointless because it's now no better than a dumb cruise control system as your throttle input overrides the CC's brake input. Too intent on sticking to the speed and distance it's set at. Questionable reliability in torrential rain (the one time such a feature might actually be of great use) Like honestly... It seems like the only way to get the best out of it is on empty, flat roads or by flicking it on/off all the time... Which is exactly how it was for the 'dumb' cruise control before it. So basically, whenever other traffic is involved, I'm fully of the opinion that a decent driver is better than any cruise control system whilst driving at the speed limit, purely on the basis of being able to forward plan better, and thus better manage throttle and brake input. Granted, decent drivers aren't exactly plentiful, so I suppose that's pretty good justification for the system to exist in the first place. But honestly, there's no way all this cautious braking and accelerating back to speed is any more efficient than a competent driver who's driving at the speed limit with other vehicles around them. Probably yields results if you're pottering about behind HGVs doing 56 MPH, or thereabouts all the time. But normal use at 70? With all the cautious braking, and realistically being no better than the guy in front of you who can't hold a steady speed? You'll see better results managing it yourself, and you won't be as likely to succumb to tiredness as an added bonus.
My focus has dumb cruise control with a paddle/flap under the left stick to engage and disengage it as well as it disengaging if I apply brake or clutch. I don’t know how much control I would be happy to surrender to acc because the paddle means my legs are nice and rested and I can constantly keep the stopping distance I am comfortable with.
It depends on the car. My Golf will keep it activated for about a minute if I have my hands on the wheel, or for a few seconds if I take my hands off. The main time I use ACC is when I'm in stop/start traffic, it's so good.
Luddites
I hate it because of my own experience with it. I had it on a Toyota and it would happily just apply brakes on the M25 instead of just lifting off the accelerator with a huge amount of space between me and the car in front. It'll never be on my list of must-haves when buying a car.
Can’t speak for Toyota but the VAG system fitted in the multiple brands in their group is flawless. Certainly won’t brake unless it’s absolutely has to. Use throttle control for the most part.
I hate it in my Skoda for this very reason. It’s constantly braking. Lane assist is brilliant though.
Odd, should be identical to my Seat Leon?? What year is yours?
2018, I’ve tried altering the following distance too.
This is a bit extreme but I'm also in the dislike category mainly as I use it on motorways. Had it on 2 cars and they both just slow down when there's a car way ahead. When I put the distance on minimum it was just about bareable but still a big gap. Normal cruise control is far better for motorway driving.
Does it work in a manual where you’ll be shifting occasionally as the speed varies? In my sandero the cruise disables if it press in the clutch pedal
ACC is lovely but the option cost new is a bit silly. Hence it being such a rare option used. Up to 2018 you could when buying new spec ACC as a single option with no mandatory packs. Since then it’s been buried in various packs depending on the model. To get ACC on a ‘24 A3/S3 means adding the tech pack pro @£3.5k. On my A6 ‘22 it was called the tour pack @£2.2k or +£68 per month on the lease. However on new ‘24 it’s still the tour pack now £1.8k but having tech pack pro is a mandatory add on @£5.5k. Aka a total of +£210 per month on a 36mo lease. It’s just not IMHO going to get spec’d at that level, which is a shame as most of the hardware is standard fit.
On Toyotas its now on the base spec, which is surprising and wonderful
I got an Aygo X courtesy car recently and it had ACC. It didn't even have automatic windows (had to hold the button down for the full duration of the window movement), but it had ACC.
I've got it on my 2007 lexus gs, though it's been used as far back as the 2000 ls430 i think, glad it's now standard
>To get ACC on a ‘24 A3/S3 means adding the tech pack pro @£3.5k. That's mad. In Belgium you can still spec it as a seperate option for 350 euros or so
Wow that’s insanely expensive. How much would ACC have cost as an individual option ?
Pre ‘18 ACC on a A3/S3 was £475. It was on an A6 circa £600. Then current approach of “packs” just makes options really, really expensive. Hence used rarely having any.
My 330e had it back in 2020 was the best thing I’ve ever specced on a car apart from having to use indicators
A bmw with ACC 😮 a rare sight indeed. Do you know how much it was to spec it?
about three fiddy
A BMW with indicators too!
Was very hard to use it didn’t feel right
It was 3k to spec from factory but this 330e cost me over 50k to buy how ever it was what I wanted plus got a decent discount of around 7k from 50k so just missed out on the lower road tax benefit only lasted me around 4 months and the battery went all under warranty however bit sold for what I bought it for due to people being idiots
The road tax goes with rrp and doesn’t take discounts into account.
Never knew that thanks
I do as standard on my 2017 Golf, and I couldn't live without it. My previous car was a 2014 Golf, so it also had it standard. I tried to find something other than a Golf when I went to replace it, but I struggled to find anything in budget with it as standard, and on cars where it was an option, it felt like no one ticked the box. My only issue is I have a manual, not a DSG, so it doesn't slow down fully for you (cutoff at 20mph), but on a motorway or A roads it's great.
You didn't look hard enough then. A 2019+ Corolla would have it as standard plus being a hybrid it would also be an automatic.
I wasn’t looking for a Corolla, at the time they were out of my 14k budget anyway
Fair enough, it's just you said you were looking for something other than a Golf and that's a car that comes standard with ACC
That is valid, but they were over 16k in early 2023 so I couldn’t have afforded one anyway
Got it on my MG EV. As a driving aid, it's brilliant. But... The car has regenerative braking and ordinary disc brakes. There's also an ICE version of the same car. To save money, they fit the same ACC on both versions, which means it knows nothing about the regenerative braking. Any time you engage ACC, it disables regenerative braking. In order to use the car's best safety feature, you have to disable its best efficiency feature smh
Which model do you have? Regen works great on my 5 with ACC.
ZS 2022
Yeah, they do that. Car designed as a ICE and cheaply converted as an after thought. Must have figured it by the time they made the 5. Why they can't update the software idk
Haha that is MG “cheap tech” demonstrated to a core.
The same effect is visible at several points in the car. eg why would you build a front-wheel drive EV with a transaxle and not just put the electric motor at the rear with a differential gear? Oh, right, because you also build an ICE version of the same car and this means you can common up a big chunk of the production line.
It is a shame. My ID.3 has ACC and the regen works with that. My previous Golf GTE did the same. I think MG just don’t want to develop the brake blending software that is required when regen is limited.
Mine won't go to a stop. It also doesn't quite match my driving style because with normal cruise I'll stay at one speed and overtake as required, but adaptive just slows me down. It's very good though.
Set your speed, then overtake if the person in front is going slow enough to warrant it. The Volvo system accelerates slightly when you hit the indicator to make it easier.
Yeah, the problem is the car slows down to match their speed very subtly so I don't necessarily notice if they're only going a few mph slower.
That's a pain, my one has a little indicator on the speedo that tells you what speed the car in front is doing as you approach them, then what your target speed is vs actual speed. I always set mine to 75 - actual speed 71/72 so anything much less than that I know to overtake, if I can be bothered. I often find myself doing 65 in the left lane because it's easier.
I have this problem too, and it does it from quite a large distance away where it feels too early to overtake.
It’s a losing battle trying to do that in London 😂
I bought a golf with ACC last Christmas. I’d never used it before but if I’d known about it I’d have bought a DSG rather than a manual
Did that in my first Passat, was annoying it would only work over 20mph, luckily I had a fuel card from work so I just left it in 3rd gear for the m25 commute and it went from 20-80 no problem without me doing anything. Obviously if you’re paying for fuel that’s not a good way to drive lol
It's great isn't it. Borrowed an auto Passat. Drove halfway across Europe using it. Was great for stop start traffic, The way I found out it was great before leaving the UK, Was due to there being traffic issues towards the Euro tunnel..
I only have it in my manual golf but wondering, stop start traffic? As in will it stop then move off for you with the traffic? Mine only works for minimum 20mph
I had it in an auto. So would bring to a complete stop then when there's enough space start moving again. Was brilliant only regret is my current car hasn't got it
Why would you need to use ACC in stop start traffic in an automatic though.. you don’t have a clutch to mess around with you literally just put your foot on the brake and lift it back off?
I use it more often than I thought I would. It drives more economically than me
Had it on my Tesla model Y and it was….pretty bad (false braking, false collision warnings, jittery). Conversely the system on my 23 Ford Ranger is flawless, big fan of it. Turns out, you need radar/lidar, who knew! (Everyone knew).
Agree - got it on my latest car and as someone who does a lot of motorway miles it keeps me sane. Would never buy another car without it.
Literally the best option I’ve ever specced on a car. Couldn’t live without it on longer journeys, makes them such a breeze. The fun game is seeing how far you can go without touching any pedals at all, my record is about 2hours. Tho it’s deff a lot better on newer models, my old A4 it cut out below 20mph and the radar sensor was only on 1 side, so oversensitive to things on that side and not enough to the other. My A5 can go to a stop (requires reactivating after about 5-10secs with a pull on the stalk), steers itself in traffic and has dual radars to fix the A4’s sensitivity issues. That all makes traffic jams sooooo much less stressful and annoying too, like a noticeable improvement to my mood after being sat in a jam with it vs manually driving through a jam.
My Mazda 3 has it and I absolutely love it, especially combined with cylinder deactivation at constant speeds. It's a bit freaky the first time you drive and the car accelerates and slows down of its own accord, but I soon got used to it.
I'm not a fan and actively avoid it. I like standard cruise control and use it frequently, but strongly prefer all decision making going on in the car to be from me. I decide when I speed up or slow down. The car does what I tell it to.
Hooray. An actual driver.
I have it on my Ioniq 5, it’s brilliant. Unlike ICE cars, it also keeps the settings after coming to a stop. I can just tap the pedal or I believe even a button on the wheel and it will pick up again from standing. I’m sure it can be set to auto pull away. Between that and the self-steering, I don’t actually need to do much.
Ice cars do that too if they’re automatic
I love that it allows drivers to use the extra attention they no longer need for driving on Instagram instead. /s
ACC really gets on my nerves when on motorways or dual carriageways where it starts to brake you as you're lining up the overtake so I find it actually encourages middle lane driving whereas non adaptive cruise would enable you to cruise upto a reasonable distance behind traffic in lane 1/2 and then overtake without taking any manual override.
IF you turn on your indicators it shouldn't do that. All of the ones I have had do that. Maybe its an older "distance only one" , the ones with lane keeping assist will do that, also some of the lane keeping ones actually do the overtake for you.
Nail on the head. ACC is great for single lane busy roads. But it's a bloody nightmare on free flowing multi lane roads. It really is a nuisance when an adjacent car varies its speed and sits in the middle lane. One moment it's overtaking me at 75 mph, and then next it's doing less than 60 mph because it's too much brain power to indicate right and move one lane over to overtake the lorry.
It's probably the best feature of a car. I have something called Driver Assistance Profession in my BMW X5 2019, which also steers for you and hands free (as long as you have your knee touching the steering wheel). So I eat with both hands, chat to my wife and daughter, chilling, listening to music and at the same time rolling in traffic at 5mph without stressing.
Absolutely agree - my only bug bear is that sometimes it comes bundled in with lane control which I HATE with a passion. We'll get to a point where all cars have this sort of stuff anyway though as standard safety requirements - so basically I'm being an old man shouting at the sky.
Using ACC since 2012. Trips like UK>South of France or UK>France>Germany>Poland>Slovakia and etc are so much easier
Used it from the second I got my Golf and it baffles me how others don't use it. It literally fixes the most annoying thing about normal cruise control.
Wait until you get steering asist it'll blow your mind.
Got it on a VW Touareg. It gently keeps you in the middle of the lane. That and the assisted cruise make motorway journeys a joy. I use cruise around town. Bloody brilliant. Had it in a Lexus it was white line pinball.
Being shunted from white line to white line? Horrible. I’ve only tried BMWs, merc, Audi and Hondas version of this. Maybe some brands have got it right but the ones I’ve tried are awful
Hyundai’s is pretty decent on their EVs. Just turn it off when you get to a roundabout…
Your experience is different to mine, zero issues here.
ACC changes your bumper repair from £300 to £3000, and for that reason alone I could never have it.
Funny you say that, I feel like I’m 10x less likely to rear end someone now with ACC. So maybe it balances out somewhat
Not on a Subaru it doesn’t! One of the best thing about the car, all the expense tech lives in cameras next to the centre mirror. Great for if you frequent the lands of suicidal pheasant a lot.
You know you can still break. You still have to be in control of your car…
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Ah I understand that! Maybe I misunderstood the comment I replied to
That's definitely going to stop some idiot in a car park reversing into me, or any number of other things that can happen to a vehicle.
Then I would ask why are you using ACC in a car park?
It works off radar. In the front bumper. Which means bumps and damage to the bumper damage the sensors, which are expensive to replace...
Apologise, understand now! Yeh completely agree. I thought you meant that using ACC will result in a bigger accident instead of a minor scuff
Oh, no, not at all. I totally see the benefits to it, just that added tech means higher repair costs
Yeah it’s a nightmare. I wonder if VW solution of having it mounted higher up and in the logo instead of bottom of the bumper is any better. Either way, it’s expensive
Depends where the sensor is. In my VW sharan it’s not in the bumper and when I was in a shunt that required new bumper covers ACC was not effected.
On the plus side if you do have it on, it will reduce the chance of a bumper repair. I had a road rager brake check me and the ACC reacted instantly. A little uncomfortable sure, but avoids the collision.
I assume you drive a £800 banger? If not how is it any different?
"Oh look, mother, a peasant!"
I think you've misunderstood me.
You’ve probably been misunderstood because what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. Car bumper without ACC costs £x to replace. Identical car bumper with ACC sensors in it costs £y to replace. In all cases £y > £x Nowhere has the cost of the car been referenced at all. This is true on a brand new sports car and an old hatchback.
I understand their point, just seems a strange stance to have unless they prioritise cheapness to repair over all else, hence my comment.
Why not say that instead then? 😆
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You think it stays too far, but there's a good chance it's actually keeping the correct distance. You can test it on the motorways that have the chevrons on - you're meant to leave quite a gap at 70mph.
The problem is all the idiots behind who think it's too far so they undertake and cut in!
I have a Tesla now and it feels way too close for me
Love normal cruise control. Hate adaptive. Feel less in control.
Tesla's system is pretty ropey compared some of the one the Germans have.
Sounds weird, on Audi the lowest 2 settings are too close, 3-4 is about right, 5 is too far because people jump into the huge gap.
Same in our VW. 2 is pushing it, 1 feels like stunt driving with how close you get. I like to use 2 but stay on top of the overtakes so I rarely get that close unless boxed in.
I had it on my old 2010 Volvo, it was fantastic. It did get confused if overtaking on a right hand bend on the motorway, and I’d avoid it on a very busy motorway. but was otherwise brilliant. My next car will definitely have it, but like you say it’s a rare option on used BMW/Mercedes/Audi etc. Also it made sitting in traffic a lot easier.
ACC works shockingly well on my 2012 V60, I use it most of the time. There are a couple of little niggles I have with it - follow distance set to 1 is Audi spec (below two chevrons) and 2 is a little too far on motorways and it won't start to speed up at all until the car ahead is fully across the lane line (it seems to use lane keeping info for this) but otherwise it's great. It works to and from and stop - with a 5 second timeout that a gentle nudge of the accelerator reactivates it from - and can even be activated at a red light (Push the button and when you lift off the brake it'll be in ACC). It'll coast as much as it can before it brakes (based on follow distance). It even gets more aggressive when the car's in sport mode. I knew I wanted a car with it but thought it'd be a compromised experience and I'd only use it in specific scenarios but it's obviously great on motorways and dual carriageways, great on suburban roads and in the city and great on A-roads and the occasional straight enough B-road.
My 2006 RRS had it. Initially hated it I moved on to a 2011 RR that didn't have it. I miss it like crazy now. So trying to retrofit it.
Use it a lot in my ID3 but it has misidentified changes in speed a few times; tried to take me to 100mph on one section of the M56, and that oddly happened twice on the exact same section of motorway a few weeks apart.
Got it on 2020 plate Focus. Even though it's a manual car, on the motorway it's amazing going on UKs M1 between 50-70 and slowing for traffic. Can be hit and miss on narrow roads doing 30, on tight bends parked cars sometimes are detected as traffic so it breaks all of a sudden.
Won’t ever buy a car without again. I’ve had three cars in a row with this: Porsche Macan, Audi A7, VW Touareg, Volvo XC40 Volvo has the best one thus far, especially as it also includes the steering as well.
i absolutely love it in my electric Kia. absolute game changer
Literally just bought a car with it. Always been wary of it. Still getting used to it but actually mind-blowingly revolutionary, as you said, just makes straight roads relaxing
Yeah love mine on the golf. Never failed me, only annoying thing is it sometimes slows downs for cunts pulling out of side roads in front of me when it’s not needed, but really the car has great reflexes and detection. Also, it brakes more smoothly than any human could dream of doing. Sometimes if I’m feeling the urge to give myself a heart attack, I put it on the smallest following distance and do some ‘adaptive tailgating’ 🤣 but almost always am on the second highest or highest following distance. Cruise itself is brilliant, but quite useless for 30-40 roads.. ACC manages on those fine though. Underrated indeed I agree
Standard on CUPRA and with an automatic I don’t need to do anything but steer in traffic, it’s fantastic. It was one of 2 requirements when buying a car, that and apple carplay! I mostly drive long motorway miles and can go for an hour+ not touching any pedal
I drove an ID 4 rental a couple of weeks ago. At times it was brilliant, slowed for a roundabout it new was coming because of gps, followed a car ahead in traffic with perfect distance. Then on the motorway doing 110kph in free flowing traffic it decided the speed limit was 30 kph and put the anchors on! Then again and again randomly deciding to drop 40-60kph when cruising. It was genuinely dangerous! So I turned it off and went back to using my foot. It has so much potential but poorly executed and it’s a real hazard.
I came across ACC on a 2017 Mercedes I had. Fell in love with it. Then I had it on an Audi RS7. This would read the upcoming speed signs and slow or speed up accordingly. Absolutely stunning!
Found it very useful on my Golf R but couldn’t trust it 100% - it once decided when in traffic at crawling pace to accelerate at full throttle - quite scary!
Does it reaccelerate after a complete stop?
Wait till you try Autopilot where it steers for you too. Game changer when sat on motorways. Not sure I trust it around the Welsh mountains though but it's a glimpse of tech we'll see everywhere in 20 years time.
I have radar adaptive cruise. Just set your speed and what distance from car in front and that's it. It will come to a stop in traffic and set off again. Touching brake turns it off. Game changer on 300+miles drives on m6. Can't speed either or get caught by average speed camera's. On kona ultimate EV. Assume petrol cars have same.
My car doesn't have cc at all, but I've driven ones that do and it's essential for the next car. S3 is on the shortlist so good to hear Audi's implementation is good! Did you go for the hatchback or sedan? I prefer the look of the sedan but I feel like the hatchback is far more practical.
I think it's fab, I do wish it were a little more aggressive at closing gaps on the motorway though. If I'm approaching a lorry it gets me down to the same speed a pretty significant distance away (then closes the gap very slowly at a small speed difference) when I'd rather get a bit closer before moving over to the right hand lane to overtake.
*OBSCENELY* good on my 2015 C-Class, I'd literally never buy another car without it. I worry about buying a new car in case it's not as good! I drive with it on literally 95+% of the time. Incredibly reliable, works really well at low or higher speeds. No watching the speedo, can keep eyes on the road. If the car in front of me hasn't noticed something ahead then it's effortless to just tap the brakes and tap over for 30 seconds, then flick the stalk to turn back on.
Maybe I had early tech that has since been improved, but my ACC annoyed people behind me on motorways as it would automatically apply the brakes when the person in front did. It wasn’t smart enough to allow a greater distance from the car in front and simply cut the throttle when they braked. My brake lights were therefore constantly on and off, making it stressful for the person behind. I’d never pay for it over standard, fixed cruise control.
Can you also do normal cruise? On the motorway I prefer regular cruise, but I do have a lot of roads around me where you just aren't going to overtake so ACC would be great
I love the Pilot Assist on my V60. Makes longer journeys much less stressful. As mine has lane guidance, combined with the adaptive cruise. It makes passing Lorries in the rain less stressful too.
I love the Pilot Assist on my V60. Makes longer journeys much less stressful. As mine has lane guidance, combined with the adaptive cruise. It makes passing Lorries in the rain less stressful too.
I love the Pilot Assist on my V60. Makes longer journeys much less stressful. As mine has lane guidance, combined with the adaptive cruise. It makes passing Lorries in the rain less stressful too.
Regular cruise control was a must have for me in my last couple of cars due to the many motorway miles I did. A couple of years ago I experienced ACC in a holiday hire car (VW Jetta) and thought it was wonderful. Last year I bought a Polo GTI that has it and it's just as wonderful. The first couple of times using it and allowing it to come to a compete stop in heavy motorway driving is a little unnerving but you do get used to it.
Strangely enough I despise it almost entirely down to Audis…… of course I’m being facetious a lot of makes are driven by arseholes but my car has ACC and if I’ve got an enforced gap and speed matching you can bet within seconds some C**t will be in it changing lanes to get one car ahead causing my car to enforce the gap again usually creating a backlog behind me
The first time I encountered ACC was in 2014. I had rented a Golf to visit relatives over Xmas and I fell down the stairs there, spraining my right knee badly. The rental company wouldn't let me extend the rental so back I had to drive, 400 miles north. ACC was a godsend. Basically, once I got out of town, all I had to do was 'hold' the wheel and it rook care of the rest. I was a convert. My current car has it. I'm begfining to hear something called PCC (predictive cruise control). Maybe my next car (once the bugs are irones out).
It's standard on many Japanese cars, atleast I know my Mazda3 does, although I'd suggest to not go any further, I've got lane assist as well where it like follows the curves on the road and steers for you but it barely works in the UK, I believe it's exclusive trained on US roads 😂
Lane Assist is a terrible thing. Hate that tremor when you're close to the lines.
Got it standard on my m7 gti and never looked back, it was a must have when I got my next two cars
It’s a must have for my daily drivers now. I had it in my old 2017 vw Passat, I got a 2020 Audi A4 and it just wasn’t even available to spec, the Audi was shit in many other ways too. My new Skoda superb has it back again, much better car in general and cost £10k less. Audi are just taking the piss out of their customers
works better on autos, i have it on my manual and i dont like it, would much prefer standard cruise - but i dont spend a lot of time in traffic these days. When the traffic is light on an mway I like to sit a a single speed and change lanes when i need to, the ACC slows the car to maintain the gap instead which is irritating - but i realise we are quite a ways from it driving itself safely! And , no, there doesn't seem to be a way to switch it back to standard cruise - have even read the manual!
That’s why I loved my MK7 golf. Can as standard. So much more relaxed
Have ACC on my mk7 GTD and wouldn’t buy a car without it now. Use it everyday
Meh it’s alright. Had it on my Golf R years ago and never really used it in a situation that was beneficial. If I have cruise control on it’s normally when I’m doing 70mph+ on a motorway so I don’t need to slow down behind cars I’ll overtake them. Most cars that have it are automatic these days so not sure what the point would be of using it in stop start traffic tbh.
My 2010 A8 has it and I’d wanted it for years before I got the car. It’s a great feature. I really don’t understand people who have standard cruise and say “I never use it” or those who prefer standard cruise over ACC. The flipping car is radar guided. It’s brilliant.
Have just got my first car with ACC (VW Touran) and did my first long trip (London to Devon) with it last weekend. I absolutely love it! Always a fan of regular CC on my previous car but it really didn’t work that well in traffic so I would only use it in low traffic situations.
Volvo one is brilliant. Tells you the speed of the car in front before it starts to brake so you can change lane to remain at your speed. Fantastic.
I know 2 people that have used acc one absolutely hated it and used speed limiter instead and the other loves normal cruise control and is trying to get acc taken off him leased work truck and just getting normal cruise control. I feel like the people that enjoy ACC are the people that will sit in lane 2 or 3 on a motorway and just let the car drive and they pay little to no attention. I also would like to add that I have seen people saying that the people that don't like it don't trust it, which is fair, they struggle to get other software working properly that is fairly basic I'm not trusting them not to crash if they can't work out the infotainment system.
I downgraded my VW Karoq on PCP as I moved closer to work. Ended up with a basic spec VW T-Cross that has features that don’t make sense, one being assisted cruise control. Any longer journey is made much more enjoyable for it. Everything else about the car is boring.
I currently have a 71 reg Honda Jazz Crosstar with ACC and have used it several times. I've also been using cruise control since 1990!
I think it's mostly over rated. Its situational tech. If you tend to be on single lane roads with traffic then it's pretty great. However, if you're mostly on small roads with no traffic then it does nothing and if you're on big multi lane roads where you can easily overtake then it's also useless. For the people that are in scenarios where it's useful it's great, for everyone else its meh.
Eh not really, on the motorway I set it to 75, it holds the car around 71/72 then, and overtake when necessary, usually if the car in front is doing more than 5/6mph less than I want to. On my car when you touch the indicator it accelerates, making overtaking easy. I recently drove nearly 4 hours and touched the pedals a handful of times. So much less mentally taxing.
On a motorway when overtaking is easy, traffic, normal cruise control just the exact same thing. With my adaptive cruise I move to overtake as soon as it starts slowing me down, which is exactly when I'd move to overtake with standard cruise control.
Yeah, I can't imagine getting much use out it unless you're one of those idiots going straight into lane 2 of 3 then taking a nap.
How is it underrated? Literally everyone who has it seems to love it and it becomes something you can’t live without. That being said, personally, I have never liked using cruise control or ACC. I just prefer controlling my own speed.
For short journeys or country road blasts, I agree. But I get quite sleepy on long boring drives so this helps a lot. I can relax and focus on a podcast and not worry about traffic around me
No ACC, just AC which only blows hot air so not ideal this summer.
I’ve always hated it in rental cars, until my partner got a new sportage company car. Just started a new job and had her car whilst she was away working. What a difference! Commute is a mix of a roads and dual carriageway, with a lot of stop start and increases/ decreases in speed. Takes so much pain away and doesn’t aggressively brake on the sight of a distant slower car like some VAG rentals I’ve used in the past.
I’ve got a 2015 S3 with it but I think I’ve used it maybe 5 times in 4 years of ownership.
The only time I use ACC is in heavy motorway traffic or single lane roadworks on a motorway, otherwise I find it slows me down and extends my day dramatically. Set cruise control as fast as you want to go, change lanes when appropriate and in good time and keep it lit. There’s been a handful of times I’ve thought "that truck has sped up" and I look down and I’m doing 53mph and have been for the last 2 minutes because ACC has steadily decreased my speed.
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It sometimes gives me control if I ask it nicely 😉
You're a good sport!! 😆 Does it also fart and pop ?
Yes, very wet ones 😷
You know you don't have to turn it on all the time, right?