10 Facts About Cruise control

Cruise control is a system that automatically controls the speed of a motor vehicle.

Speed Cruise control existed in early automobiles such as the Wilson-Pilcher in the early 1900s.

Cruise control came up with the idea due to being frustrated by his driver's habit of speeding up and slowing down as he talked.

Cruise control added a speed lock capability that maintained the car's speed until the driver tapped the brake pedal or turned off the system.

Cruise control conceived the device while driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and installed his invention in his car in 1948.

Cruise control's invention is described in two patents filed that year, with the second introducing digital memory, and was the first electronic device that controlled a car.

Cruise control takes its speed signal from a rotating driveshaft, speedometer cable, wheel speed sensor from the engine's RPM, or from internal speed pulses produced electronically by the vehicle.

Cruise control often includes a memory feature to resume the set speed after braking, and a coast feature to reduce the set speed without braking.

On vehicles with a manual transmission, cruise control is less flexible because the act of depressing the clutch pedal and shifting gears usually disengages the cruise control.

Vehicles with adaptive cruise control are considered a Level 1 autonomous car, as defined by SAE International.