Having a “smarter” car has made me a bit of an angrier driver.
My car has adaptive cruise control, so it automatically paces the vehicle in front of me at a predefined distance. I use it extensively on the highway, and I often have it set for a bit higher than most other drivers go. This means that I know how fast the vehicle in front of me is going and has been for the entire time they’re in front of me.
This has lead me to realize that most other drivers seem to unintentionally (or intentionally) drive in infuriating ways.
Most folks in the left lane don’t maintain a constant speed, even when the lane in front of them is clear. They often go just slightly faster than the speed of “prevailing traffic” - which means they slow down when passing vehicles (often as slow as 10mph under the speed limit), and speed up quite dramatically when vehicles do get tired of them and move to pass - very often blocking would-be passers.
At best, I view these drivers to be inattentive. At worst, I envision them to be wannabe cops, enforcing their vision of highway traffic on others.
I wonder if they feel the same sense of satisfaction expressed in the above meme?
I find having adaptive cruise control makes me less angry. I’ve just stopped caring if the car in front is going 2-3 mph slower than I want to travel at. I’ll pass if there’s room and if my turn is coming up I’ll just pace behind them. I find I usually get stopped at the same lights as everybody anyway so it doesn’t matter.
I hate using it in medium to heavy traffic since the relative speed of who ever is in front of me and how much space is constantly changing. Even putting along exactly at the speed limit, you’ll still hit trucks and slow weirdos and people forgetting what exit they’re close to.
Not so much about comfort, but I can get 3-4mpg more by driving manually and planning my speed for multiple lanes and traffic patterns. If you keep your speed highly consistent, accelerate carefully, and let your speed wander down when going up hill, you can save even more, but some of that becomes annoying to other drivers.
Having a “smarter” car has made me a bit of an angrier driver.
My car has adaptive cruise control, so it automatically paces the vehicle in front of me at a predefined distance. I use it extensively on the highway, and I often have it set for a bit higher than most other drivers go. This means that I know how fast the vehicle in front of me is going and has been for the entire time they’re in front of me.
This has lead me to realize that most other drivers seem to unintentionally (or intentionally) drive in infuriating ways.
Most folks in the left lane don’t maintain a constant speed, even when the lane in front of them is clear. They often go just slightly faster than the speed of “prevailing traffic” - which means they slow down when passing vehicles (often as slow as 10mph under the speed limit), and speed up quite dramatically when vehicles do get tired of them and move to pass - very often blocking would-be passers.
At best, I view these drivers to be inattentive. At worst, I envision them to be wannabe cops, enforcing their vision of highway traffic on others.
I wonder if they feel the same sense of satisfaction expressed in the above meme?
I find having adaptive cruise control makes me less angry. I’ve just stopped caring if the car in front is going 2-3 mph slower than I want to travel at. I’ll pass if there’s room and if my turn is coming up I’ll just pace behind them. I find I usually get stopped at the same lights as everybody anyway so it doesn’t matter.
Oh, yeah, and it’s great for that.
The folks consistently going 2-3 mph slower than I want to go kind of have my respect. They have their own thing going.
But as my comment states, it’s the folks who vary ±20mph to maintain rolling roadblocks that I find so annoying.
I hate using it in medium to heavy traffic since the relative speed of who ever is in front of me and how much space is constantly changing. Even putting along exactly at the speed limit, you’ll still hit trucks and slow weirdos and people forgetting what exit they’re close to.
Not so much about comfort, but I can get 3-4mpg more by driving manually and planning my speed for multiple lanes and traffic patterns. If you keep your speed highly consistent, accelerate carefully, and let your speed wander down when going up hill, you can save even more, but some of that becomes annoying to other drivers.