Cruise Control - Auto Brakes

[mjcourtney]

I don't know whether this is common knowledge, but I certainly didn't realise it until last night....

When I set the cruise control I noticed that it seems particularly good at holding speed / slowing down on downhill sections. I assumed this was just engine braking through clever engine management, however I noticed last night that my brake lights were coming on! So it appears that cruise control limits your speed through active use of the brakes in addition to maintaining the speed through throttle management.

These cars are getting too clever by far lol. I've had the car 7 months already and i'm still discovering new things to put a smile on my face

 

[Daveotto]

How did you manage to work out the brake lights were on....thats a lot of faith in cruise control and lane assist if you were hanging out the back window watching the light cluster.

Seriously, I have been very impressed with speed control both up and down hill at high speed (French Motorways) but had not given much thought to whether it was engine braking or not

 

[cemerson]

Yep, and the fact that you can change gears with cruise control active as well these days, always used to disengage the old ones. I knew this was the case with AAC as that is what it's for, but good to see they are introducing it to the standard cruise control too. Very clever!

 

[97catalunya]

I don't know whether this is common knowledge, but I certainly didn't realise it until last night....

When I set the cruise control I noticed that it seems particularly good at holding speed / slowing down on downhill sections. I assumed this was just engine braking through clever engine management, however I noticed last night that my brake lights were coming on! So it appears that cruise control limits your speed through active use of the brakes in addition to maintaining the speed through throttle management.

These cars are getting too clever by far lol. I've had the car 7 months already and i'm still discovering new things to put a smile on my face

He he I have never checked the brake lights but if I slow down considerably with the stalk I can feel the brakes coming on, very impressive! I don't have ACC either by the way, but think I will next time

 

[cemerson]

I'm thinking next time I could be persuaded to go for an auto box just beacuse of the ACC!

 

[pablo]

my 07 A6 had all that. cruise would brake for you and also allow a couple of seconds to change gear without deactivating.

bit unexpected truth be told.

 

[cemerson]

I can actually hold the clutch in for quite a while with my ACC as it slows down to about 10mph before it gives up and hands control back to you for the final bit of braking... without the clutch in the revs end up too low at some point and it gives up sooner

 

[Daveotto]

He he I have never checked the brake lights but if I slow down considerably with the stalk I can feel the brakes coming on, very impressive! I don't have ACC either by the way, but think I will next time

I do like the way a continued downward/upward push on the cruise control stalk quickly increments the speed in 10mph units so have really good coarse and fine control of the speed....still would not go as far as ACC at the moment though.

 

[cemerson]

Does the standard cruise control let you control the speed down to 1mph resolution? ACC does it in 5mph increments (2.5mph increments under 40mph) - ie, where the red triangles are, but then you don't need such fine control with ACC as you are effectively just setting the maximum speed and the radar does the fine adjustment.

 

[JohnM100]

Does the standard cruise control let you control the speed down to 1mph resolution? ACC does it in 5mph increments (2.5mph increments under 40mph) - ie, where the red triangles are, but then you don't need such fine control with ACC as you are effectively just setting the maximum speed and the radar does the fine adjustment.

Standard cruise control does allow increments of 1mph, at least at the speeds at which I have used it (mainly 50-70mph).

John.

 

[Daggerit]

Yup, 1mph increments from 20+ to illegal speeds!

 

[cemerson]

Just spotted this in the configurator:

"Cruise control. Maintains any speed above 18mph, provided that the engine power output and engine braking effect permit it."

Strange then, that implies that it doesn't use the brakes - think it needs updating!

 

[Daveotto]

Yep 1mph increments for me upto 85mph (on French roads of course)

 

[cemerson]

Goes up to 100mph for me, given I have the camera that comes with variable range headlights / speed limit detection / lane assist, which increases the speed range of the cruise control. Not that I ever use that range...

 

[mjcourtney]

How did you manage to work out the brake lights were on....

Easy, I just looked behind the sofa!



Or it just happened to be a rural road at night and I could see the reflection of my brake lights flashing on in the rear view mirror

 

[Itguy]

I'm thinking next time I could be persuaded to go for an auto box just beacuse of the ACC!

Damn right - that's one of the reasons I've gone S-Tronic on my S3 order

 

[ivicker]

Braking with cruise control is not new technology, I first noticed it on my S5 in 2008 whilst driving on the motorway I noticed when I slowed the car down with the cruise the brake lights came on.