Fact or Fiction ???

[BUDDAH]

I wonder how many people know about this?
A 36-year-old female had an accident several weeks ago and totalled her
car. A resident of Wollongong , NSW, she was travelling between
Wollongong & Sydney . It was raining, though not excessively, when her car
Suddenly began to hydroplane and literally flew through the air.
She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden
occurrence!
When she explained to the policeman what had happened, he told her
something that every driver should know - NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH
YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON. She had thought she was being cautious by setting
the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain.
But the policeman told her that if the cruise control is on and your car
begins to hydroplane -- when your tyres lose contact with the pavement,
your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed and you take off like
an airplane. She told the policeman that was exactly what had occurred.
The policeman estimated her car was actually travelling through the air
at 10 to 15 kms per hour faster than the speed set on the cruise control.
The policeman said this warning should be listed, on the driver's seat
sun-visor - NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR
ICY, along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise
control and drive a safe speed - but we don't tell them to use the cruise
control only when the road is dry.
The only person the accident victim found, who knew this
(besides the policeman), was a man who had had a similar accident,
totalled his car and sustained severe injuries.

[SkoobyGT]

BS I say.

I am going down a local main road, dump heaps of water, and hitting cruise and watch me fly....yehooow

Still wouldn't get her out of a $300 neg drive ticket as she didn't drive to the conditions.

[rxliberty2000]

I would say its true.

As the cruise reads the speed, and as you hit the water you would slow down, the cruise will accelate to obtain the set speed.

[Ric]

It is "true", but only in a very limited sense.
It will only happen in a 2WD car, and only when the vehicle speed is read from the non-driven wheels.
e.g. in a rear wheel drive car, your front wheels will stop turning when you aquaplane, so if the speed sense was from them, the cruise control may increase power to try to regulate the speed.
Many cars read the speed from the gearbox, in which case this couldn't happen.
I'm not sure if Subies read it from the gearbox, or from the ABS sensors, but either way, it's not going to be a problem in an AWD car.

Some discussion here: http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/wetroad.asp

[gt_dicko]

I use cruise control in all conditions, rain, hail and shine.
Never had any problems. This is the case with my previous cars too.

I say she just can't drive.

Of course you have to be careful when you use these features, but you must always be prepared to take control of the car when needed.

[rxliberty2000]

All subaru's from 89 onwards read the speed from the gearboxes.

DCCD reads from the abs sensors also.

[MIB]

But if she's aquaplaning she has no grip, so how would the car 'accelerate'?

Once you lost grip, forward inertia (weight of vehicle travelling at 100km/h) and a lack of resistance (friction between tyres and road) would be the only thing that would 'accelerate' you forward, cruise control would have nothing to do with it.

What strikes me as wierd is how many people spear off the Brisbane-Gold Coast highway when it rains, every time it rains heavily someone puts it into the median strip at speed. Bald Tyres? Stuffed shockies? Who knows, doubt it was cruise control though

EDIT: After reading Ric's link, I can see the one wheel drive analogy, that said, even if you were driving with cruise off, it'd still do the same thing...

[Ric]

EDIT: After reading Ric's link, I can see the one wheel drive analogy, that said, even if you were driving with cruise off, it'd still do the same thing...

But you wouldn't put your foot down when your front wheels started aquaplaning...

I really think there may only ever have been one or two models of car that actually did this, probably in the early days of cruise control.

[MIB]

But once the wheel breaks traction and the resistance is removed, it will increase it's acceleration. When I had my 4WD and did some serious offroad, once you lifted an (unlocked) wheel, it would unload to that wheel, it'd always increase revs no matter how much accelerator you had on (as long as you had SOME on) cause you've reduced the resistance for that given amount of acceleration... Strange but true...

[Ric]

But that doesn't make the car go faster. The claim is that the car "takes off", meaning that some wheels that aren't spinning are being driven faster.