Cruise control made by brother sleep while driving on the expressway- Cruise control vs. ADAS
We humans designed cruise control for our convenience but it is a big safety hazard. The major benefit of cruise control that I have observed so far include:
- - Rest to the right leg. As I move closer to 40, I've started experiencing slight pain after driving for few hours (leg remains extended as I keep the seat as far as possible without causing strain on the shoulders, elbows and knees ofcourse).
- - Fuel efficiency: My 1.5 NA petrol car can give upto 21kmpl using cruise control on expressways compared to 18-19 I get on the expressways without using the cruise control.
- - Avoiding over speeding in city limits (40-60kmph limits).
- - Avoiding speeding tickets on highways with 50KMPH speed limit in some states such as Himachal/ Uttarakhand where highways in plains also have a speed limit of just 50KMPH (Dehradun residents will know).
- - Lower fatigue
01. My accident last year
I had voted for the Cruise Control being useful. My first car with cruise control is a S-Cross and it is also the only car in our house to have this feature. My car has been in an accident due to the person driving the car going into sleep mode while driving at 50KMPH on a highway using cruise control. It sinks my heart to see the photo of the car even today. Fortunately, the tyres and suspension did not get hit so alignment issues did not come up.
02. The incident few days back
While coming back from the MotoGP sprint race in Noida on Saturday, 23-Sep-2023, I seated on the front passenger seat and handed over the driver seat to my younger brother who was quite impressed with the ease of operating the car with the cruise control set at 80KMPH on the Delhi-Mumbai expressway (speed limit 120KMPH).
It was around 9PM and no time for sleep. Still, I closed my eyes for a few minutes as I rarely get to sit on the passenger seats (plus I was tired from standing in the sun without umbrella). After some time, I randomly opened my eyes and was treated to the horror of our car being driven by my brother with closed eyes. He was still gripping the steering tightly with both hands. I immediately moved forward in my seat and gently held the steering as calling out his name could have startled him. My brother immediately went on defensive saying that he wasn't sleeping but thinking something.
The swiss cheese model did not come into play mainly because the expressway is presently sort of deserted, the road is too wide and my brother must have closed his eyes just seconds ago. Had I chose to keeping my eyes closed for some more time, I do not wish to even imagine what could have happened.
03. My uncle's warning last year
I was dropping my maternal uncle (Maama), a few weeks after my accident last year, who was scheduled to return to US. He is in general very fond of my driving style (compared to the usual ones in our family driving like how we Indians should) as I drive slow and unlike most drivers here, sort of practice defensive driving. He was watching me use cruise control @45KMPH within Chandigarh city limits. As we were discussing the need of cruise control in avoiding speed cameras within Chandigarh,
his only comment was that using cruise control is very dangerous when a person is feeling sleepy/ tired.
Learnings from these experiences that I am incorporating in my driving: Quote:
- Never rely on cruise control for extended period of time.
- Disengage cruise control every now and then.
- If even there is slight hint of drowsiness, stop the car, walk for a few minutes and then resume without cruise control. NEVER use cruise control the moment you find yourself drowsy, especially if the remaining distance is less (less than 50Km journey remaining).
- If possible, cruise control should not be used during the last kilometers when we are more susceptible to dismiss taking rest even if drowsy, thinking that we are almost there so why to waste time.
- Avoid engaging cruise control above 8-=90KMPH.
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Cruise control v. ADAS
In light of these three instances above, I have decided that my future car must have ADAS rather than plain cruise control.
I also invite and request members who are driving cars with ADAS as well as cruise control to share their perspectives on how much benefit does ADAS carries in specific situation where a driver could sleep while driving owing to the two main features, i.e.
lane departure assist & autonomous braking. I believe that while highway hypnosis and sleeping while driving under cruise control is known to us, it is not a much discussed topic and I, for one, was unaware of such problems till I experienced them myself.
BUT, ADAS itself is known to contribute to the very issues it aims to solve. Then, there is a "crazy for views" public that wants to do stunts in cars with ADAS.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...such-adas.html (Misuse of technologies such as ADAS) Some links for further reading:
https://www.renschandrensch.com/2014...er-drowsiness/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...46043019301091 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/july...ions-1.4753032 https://cleantechnica.com/2021/09/29...y-inattentive/ https://www.1800leefree.com/blog/how...riving-habits/