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By C. Jake Williams. May 19, 2009
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My car has cruise control. It only works intermittently at the moment, but it usually saves me to trouble of constantly adjusting my car's acceleration to counter the angle of the road in an attempt to maintain a constant velocity. Dodge did ok with its design, but I can dream better.
A friend's Ford Mustang has a slightly more advanced cruise control. Unlike my simple cruise which only allows a driver to set a speed and adjust the velocity by resetting, this particular Mustang allows its user to bump the speed up or down in two MPH increments. The flow of traffic rarely maintains one speed for very long, so this feature is an obvious improvement over my Stratus'.
Again, I can dream better than an American automaker has produced.
Drafting fascinates me. Racecars reduce the aerodynamic drag on their cars by symbiotically working together. It allows for greater speed during a race, or for increased fuel efficiency at set speeds. This is how I would improve the cruise control feature if I owned Dodge, Ford, or General Motors.
Make cruise control standard on all models of Your Make, and allow for Your Make to match the speed of the car directly ahead. It wouldn't be difficult to install a system that can gauge the distance to the next vehicle, and from that point it would require minimal calculations to determine how that distance is changing with time, which could easily give the difference between the cars' speed. From there, the rear car adjusts its speed accordingly to match velocities and maintain a safe distance.
Three seconds back, with matching speeds, two cars could increase the fuel efficiency of both vehicles. Add more cars and the effect increases. The limit of this would be so many cars moving at the same speed that the air around them basically is sucked along like a bubble, effectively eliminating wind resistance.
This wouldn't eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, but it sure would add a reason to buy American instead of letting Honda and Toyota think of it first.
And while we're discussing cars and their features, why not make more luxury features standard? Are cars with power seats really $500 more expensive to build than those without? American manufacturers need to generate arguments for car-buying Americans before Kia or Hyundai introduce them first.
You were there.