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BangShift Question Of The Day: Would You Actually Use A Hands-Free Cruise Control?


BangShift Question Of The Day: Would You Actually Use A Hands-Free Cruise Control?

Mile after mile does tend to get old when you are just making the trek from Point A to Point B. The playlists of music gets stale, the jokes on the comedy channels start to repeat, and if you don’t take a break and move around soon, your left buttcheek will be asleep for the next three days. You aren’t meant to sit for hours at the wheel, it’s not that normal. That’s why cruise control is such a popular feature on vehicles…you might be stuck steering but you can at least give your right foot a rest on the next 300 mile stretch of Interstate cruising before you pull over to get a snack and refill the tank. I’ve only driven two cars on long trips without cruise: the Mirada, which had it’s system gutted out, and the Imperial, whose system didn’t operate with the 323ci engine. In both cases, I pulled one of the return springs off of the throttle linkage to soften up the pressure needed to hit the pedal (I usually keep my throttles heavily sprung) and took longer breaks when I did stop to exercise a bit.

In the current world of new cars, autonomous is the latest rage. Let the car do the work for you, many cry out. And in the case of GM, you can get a car that will do exactly that…in a Cadillac, for now. But starting in 2020, the system that GM has dubbed “Super Cruise” will start appearing in other models across the company’s range. Super Cruise combines LiDAR, GPS, a driver attention system and a myriad of cameras and radar networks to allow drivers to cruise on over 130,000 miles of freeways in the United States and Canada. That currently means that you can get into a Cadillac CT6 and make a trek from New York City to Los Angeles and the only time you’ll have to put hands on the wheel is when you’re making a pit stop. Now imagine doing that in a Chevy Tahoe, or a Buick Regal, or a GMC Terrain. What would you do with the time? Eat popcorn while you sit there and let the car have all the fun?

Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn’t. But we’re curious as to whether or not you would actually use a system like Super Cruise. Does it make sense for long-distance drives? It’s not like the driver is free to play on their phone or anything like that, but would taking your hands off of the wheel for a bit help or not matter?


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10 thoughts on “BangShift Question Of The Day: Would You Actually Use A Hands-Free Cruise Control?

  1. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    Hands free cruise control?

    I use it when I’m reaching for my cigarettes and whisky bottle at the same time – even though my car isn’t fitted with one…

  2. Brendan M

    Just another example of how we are meddling in the process of Darwinism. Morons who take their attention off the road are supposed to be weeded out of the human race, instead we are keeping them alive with technology, to procreate with other morons and make dumber offspring. This is why we are doomed as a society.

  3. Dave

    I don’t understand why people buy a car if they don’t want to drive it. They should take a freaking bus.

  4. Tim

    To answer the question; Oh, hell no! Self driving cars need to be outlawed. And I totally agree with Dave when he said, “I don’t understand why people buy a car if they don’t want to drive it. They should take a freaking bus.” But these are the people who like to text, put on their make up, read the paper, surf the web, read a book, etc. while driving.

  5. BeaverMartin

    I’ll only consider a self driving car if it has a recliner, a wet bar, and a TV for my commute home.

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