Hi All:

___Because no road is completely flat, cruise can be bested over just about any route one could possibly traverse.

___With that, cruise can remove some of the fatigue in driving with ones right foot making micro adjustments for hours on end. I use cruise very sparingly to remove my shoes while on the road or on extremely long drives as 2 examples. You can use your cruise as a qausi micro-control to “Drive w/ Load” with the acc/decel buttons but it is not nearly as smooth as the control you have with your Instantaneous’ feedback to your brain and then to your right foot. When using cruise as a substitute for your right foot on the accelerator, I will use the decel button when climbing just as I see the slightest fall of the Instantaneous or feel the ICE/tranny load up … The MDX and Accord’s ICE load can actually be felt so it is not to hard to discern when to tap the decel until you have arrived at the crest. The larger the climb, the more times you tap the decel just as you would when bleeding off speed the manual way. When accelerating on the backside however, accelerate with your foot first (very softly so as to not cause a FE hit) and hit the Acc button to arrive at your previous speed. Cruise control simply has too great a speed step between Acc/Decel taps (delta in speed) for the highest FE when attempting the “Driving w/ Load” technique. Normal Cruise control use cannot handle a slight ascent or descent for highest FE as it does not have the feedback to do otherwise.

___With the above, the GM automobile cruise controls I have used over some distances (Buick LeSabre) are the best in the business for this micro-control. The Honda’s (MDX and not as bad in the Accord) are the worst. The Toyota I have driven for a lengthy period (Corolla) is middling at best. The 2 Ford’s (Ranger and Aviator) aren’t bad and just a touch behind the GM unit in my experience.

___Cdbrow1, because automobile GPS units cannot place you directly onto a spot within < 10’ of error for the most part, I don’t think this will work let alone how different automobiles handle the many small ascents and descents traversed differently. Maybe a Military NAV unit could get you within 3’ but not the consumer GPS gear we use in our automobiles today. A more simplistic solution would be to change the feedback from a given speed to engine load or base it off the instantaneous. With that however, I would hate to see what traffic would turn into with everybody “Driving w/ Load”. Any well traveled Interstates would become a traffic nightmare so let us just keep this little godsend to ourselves, OK

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net