Cruise Control

Porsche InnoDrive calculates "the perfect, efficient longitudinal drive strategy."

Fiat recalls almost 4,000 500e electric vehicles because of a potentially troubling cruise-control glitch.

The UK-market Ford S-Max features an Intelligent Speed Limiter, a cruise control setting that automatically maintains the posted speed limit. It does so by using cameras in the windshield to read speed limit signs.

The next time the hypermiler in front of you stops you from catching that next green light, take heart. One day, it won't be the driver's fault. There will be algorithms involved. But you migh still be aggravated for not making that light.

Now what?

The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS) is asking the government to help them slow down drivers. Despite Scotland recording its lowest traffic fatalities since they began keeping track of the statistic, Transport Minister Keith Brown says, "... one death on our roads is one too many as far as I am concerned."

Cadillac is trying to make a name for itself on the safety and technology front, recently introducing its new Safety Alert Seat and outfitting new models with a suite of safety equipment that arguably puts it among the leaders in the industry. We got a chance to sample some of this last month, but we were also allowed to "drive" a se

Trickle-down technology is how four-wheel anti-lock braking systems went from their production debut on a 1978 Mercedes-Benz S-Class to being standard equipment across the board for all vehicles on the road today. It also explains how advanced technologies like adaptive cruise control, pre-collision auto-braking and, to a lesser extent, lane departure warning, has made its way down the funnel to Subaru's mainstream sedans, the

Should Porsche Make Cars That Even Hint At Driving Themselves?

Last month, Ford widened its cruise control switch recall to 4.5 million vehicles. Included in the growing list of cars and trucks was the Ford Ranger pickup – the mechanical twin to the now-discontinued Mazda B-Series pickup. Not surprisingly, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has now widened its recall to encompass 39,600 of Mazda's 1995-1997 and 2001-2003 trucks for the exact same

For the past ten years, Ford has been doing a dance with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and consumers over the issue of leaking cruise control switches in certain company vehicles. As of 2008, it had recalled some 9.6 million vehicles to repair a faulty Texas Instruments cruise-control deactivation switch, and now after a NHTSA investigation, the Blue Oval has added 4.5 million more Ford and Mercury vehicles to the recall.

The next step in cruise control comes courtesy of Freightliner semis and GPS data company NAVTEQ. Freightliner broadened communication between the cruise control and map data: the GPS transmits information on the road ahead up to a mile, and then the cruise control computes the best speed at which to cover the distance with the greatest fuel efficiency.

Even after recalling 10 million vehicles over the past few years, Ford just can't seem to shake the cruise control blues. There have been 130 reports of fires in 1998-2003 Ford Windstars, both during use and while parked, and the NHTSA is looking into the matter to determine if a recall is needed. The fires may be due to the Windstar's cruise control system, but Ford says this unit is differ

Hang on just a little longer if you've got a Ford with the self-immolating cruise control option. Since the recall was announced in August, there's been a run on service departments, leading to a shortage of fused wiring harnesses for the passenger cars involved in the effort. The SUVs and pickups haven't had any supply problems, so it's just people with the honor of still owning s

From the Bad Timing Department: As the battle for market share in the shrinking U.S. light truck market heated up with the introduction of General Motors' new models, Ford announced Thursday that it is recalling 1.2 million trucks, SUVs and vans in the U.S. to fix faulty wiring in the cruise control system.