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  • 2002-11-18 (xsd:date)
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  • Is Using Cruise Control on Wet Roads Dangerous? (en)
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  • We began seeing this form of cautionary tale about automobile cruise control systems turn up in inboxes in November 2002: Although these accounts are probably real in the sense that they indeed reflect someone's attempt to describe an automotive mishap that actually happened to him, the explanation about a hydroplaning car's suddenly accelerating and taking off like a rocket due to the use of cruise control is a garbled one probably reflecting the author's misunderstanding of what had occurred. Nonetheless, the warning inherent to the tale — don't engage your vehicle's cruise control on slippery or wet roads — is well worth heeding. Snow, ice, slush, or even rain can cause wheel-spin and loss of control, situations to which drivers must react quickly. Although cruise control can generally be cut off by the driver's simply tapping the brake pedal, the extra reaction time required for a motorist relying upon cruise control to recognize the danger of the situation when his wheels begins to spin or slide on a slippery surface, bring his foot up off the floor to the brake pedal, and disengage the cruise control can be crucial (especially for drivers lured into a hazardous level of inattentiveness on long, flat stretches of road). According to the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia's web page of tips about driving on wet roads: An example from the weekly Drive It Forever'' automotive column by New York Times Syndicate writer Bob Sikorsky provided a description of one such occurrence: Wet-road driving is fraught with dangers that are not always immediately apparent. Just a thin layer of water lying on pavement can send an unsuspecting car hydroplaning into another lane — the car's wheels skim along the water's surface instead of making contact with the road. Also, roads constantly accumulate oily substances loosed by car exhaust, and this residue settles deep into the pavement. Rain brings this oil back to the surface, making roads especially slippery during that first hour of downpour or misting. Likewise, winter driving carries with it a similar set of perils. Ice, snow, and sleet can make for dangerously slippery conditions, but so too can innocuous-looking slush and all-but-invisible black ice. Those who habitually rely upon their vehicles' cruise controls should eschew the practice during the winter months, because the moments it takes to disengage cruise may be moments you don't have during a spin-out. (en)
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