Automatic Cruise Control

How does it work?

Automatic Cruise Control (ACC) uses distance-sensing technology that automatically reduces or accelerates the speed of the vehicle to maintain a constant distance between two vehicles.

ACC systems are an extension of conventional cruise control (CCC) systems that adjust vehicle speed and provide a specific distance to the vehicle ahead by automatically controlling the accelerator and/or brake. A key part of an ACC system is the range sensor, such as a radar, lidar or video camera, which measures the distance and relative speed of the two successive vehicles. In the absence of a vehicle ahead, a vehicle equipped with ACC travels at a speed set by the user controlling the accelerator, much like operating a CCC system.

Adaptive cruise control switch

Pros

  • Increases comfort and safety for the driver, is functional for long trips, and in turn optimizes fuel use and engine performance.
  • It allows you to set and manipulate the speed more precisely, for which steering wheel controls are available.
  • Considerably improves attention to the rest of the elements of the road and avoids both visual and physical effort that can occur in the driver.
  • By maintaining safety distances and regulating speed, it improves traffic at an overall level, by generating a smoother drive (i.e., all vehicles traveling at same speed), all the while reducing accidents.
  • This technology is becoming increasingly standard or optional in best-selling vehicles.

Cons

  • Depending on where you drive, ACC can generate a type of relaxation on the part of the driver that can easily distract them (i.e., lower concentration on the driving task).
  • Depends on the terrain and the qualities of the road for optimal performance.
  • The effectiveness of automatic braking is not comparable to that of the brake pedal, which is why driver vigilance is required.
  • If drivers can set the following distance, some of them may set it so they are too close to a vehicle in front of them increasing the risk of a rear end collision in case of a rapid necessity of takeover.

Common names

  • Adaptive cruise control
  • Adaptive cruise control with low speed
  • Adaptive cruise control with tail assist
  • Adaptive cruise control with stop
  • Adaptive cruise control with Stop & Go
  • Advanced Intelligent Cruise Control (ASCC)
  • Dynamic cruise control of all speeds
  • Camera-based cruise control
  • Distance assistance
  • Distance pilot
  • Distronic
  • Active Distronic
  • Distronic Plus
  • Cruise control with dynamic radar
  • Cruise control with high-speed dynamic radar
  • Smart Cruise Control (ICC)
  • OEM 1 Adaptive cruise control with Stop & Go
  • OEM 2 Radar cruise control
  • Smart cruise control (stop/start)
  • Traffic-conscious cruise control

Latest Publications on PubMed

Search results for: adaptive cruise control

  • Toward a conceptual model to improve the user experience of a sustainable and secure intelligent transport system
    by Abdullah Alsaleh on March 13, 2025 at 10:00 am

    The rapid advancement of automotive technologies has spurred the development of innovative applications within intelligent transportation systems (ITS), aimed at enhancing safety, efficiency and sustainability. These applications, such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication and autonomous driving, are transforming transportation by enabling adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, real-time traffic management and predictive maintenance....

  • Enhancing motorcycle safety: Quantifying the effects of Autonomous Emergency Braking and Adaptive Cruise Control in crashes reduction
    by Abdelkarim Ait-Moula on March 11, 2025 at 10:00 am

    CONCLUSIONS: Optimization of key parameters such as triggering strategy, deceleration, sensor range, and field of view is crucial for maximizing the effectiveness of ARAS in motorcycle safety applications. These findings provide valuable insights for manufacturers and policymakers, highlighting the need for tailored approaches to system design and implementation. By refining these systems based on empirical data and analysis, significant improvements can be made in motorcycle safety, ultimately...

  • Examination of General Motors Super Cruise system field effects using state police report crash data
    by Andrew J Leslie on February 22, 2025 at 11:00 am

    INTRODUCTION: While SAE Level 2 systems combining Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and lane centering functionality can conveniently reduce the need for the driver to frequently brake, accelerate, and steer the vehicle, the potential safety benefit of such systems merit further exploration.

  • Convenience or safety system? Crash rates of vehicles equipped with partial driving automation
    by Jessica B Cicchino on February 21, 2025 at 11:00 am

    OBJECTIVE: Although partial driving automation systems are usually discussed as convenience features, consumers sometimes consider them to be safety features. The goal of this study was to assess if partial driving automation reduces rear-end and lane departure crashes beyond safety systems like automatic emergency braking (AEB) and lane departure prevention (LDP).

  • Risk quantification based Adaptive Cruise control and its application in approaching behavior at signalized intersections
    by Haozhan Ma on January 29, 2025 at 11:00 am

    Traffic signals, while reducing conflicts within intersections, often lead to stop-and-go behaviors in approaching vehicles, negatively impacting traffic flow in terms of safety, efficiency, and fuel consumption. Aimed at minimizing the traffic oscillations caused by traffic signals through Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and meeting real-time operational needs, this paper proposes a Risk-Based Adaptive Cruise Control (RACC). RACC designs the constraints of approaching a signalized...

  • Effect of adaptive cruise control on fuel consumption in real-world driving conditions
    by Ayman Moawad on November 20, 2024 at 11:00 am

    This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the impact of adaptive cruise control on energy consumption in real-world driving conditions based on a natural experiment: a large-scale observational dataset of driving data from a diverse fleet of vehicles and drivers. The analysis is conducted at two different fidelity levels: (1) a macroscopic trip-level benefit estimate that compares trips with and without cruise control in a counterfactual way using statistical methods, and (2) a...

  • Ecological cooperative merging control of heterogeneous electric vehicle platoons
    by Tian Luo on November 12, 2024 at 11:00 am

    Vehicle platooning improves energy savings via vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. Ecological cooperative adaptive cruise control (Eco-CACC) is implemented in platoons for merging task by using regrouped platoon models. The merging positions are selected in the middle and tail of an original platoon with a two-vehicle sub-platoon. The distributed nonlinear model predictive controller based on signal temporal logic (DNMPC-STL) approach is developed to model the Eco-CACC merging strategy. The...

  • Adaptive Cruise Control under threat: A stochastic active safety analysis of sensing attacks in mixed traffic
    by Zihao Li on October 18, 2024 at 10:00 am

    Mixed traffic environments combining human-driven vehicles (HDVs) and those equipped with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) have already become prevalent. This study tackles the critical yet underexplored threat of sensing attacks, such as jamming and spoofing, on ACC systems. By applying stochastically calibrated ACC and HDV car-following models grounded in field data, we constructed an integrated and high-fidelity framework to simulate mixed traffic. This allows us to comprehensively analyze...

  • Analysis of Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems for Safe and Comfortable Driving of Motor Vehicles
    by Tomasz Neumann on October 16, 2024 at 10:00 am

    This paper aims to thoroughly examine and compare advanced driver-assistance systems (ADASs) in the context of their impact on safety and driving comfort. It also sought to determine the level of acceptance and trust drivers have in these systems. The first chapter of this document describes the sensory detectors used in ADASs, including radars, cameras, LiDAR, and ultrasonics. The subsequent chapter presents the most popular driver assistance systems, including adaptive cruise control (ACC),...

  • Ego-Vehicle Speed Correction for Automotive Radar Systems Using Convolutional Neural Networks
    by Sunghoon Moon on October 16, 2024 at 10:00 am

    The development of autonomous driving vehicles has increased the global demand for robust and efficient automotive radar systems. This study proposes an automotive radar-based ego-vehicle speed detection network (AVSD Net) model using convolutional neural networks for estimating the speed of the ego vehicle. The preprocessing and postprocessing methods used for vehicle speed correction are presented in detail. The AVSD Net model exhibits characteristics that are independent of the angular...

  • Experimental investigation of the multianticipation mechanism in commercial SAE level 2 automated driving vehicles and associated safety impact
    by Riccardo Donà on September 17, 2024 at 10:00 am

    Extensive experimental analyses concerned with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) have clearly shown that such systems have failed to deliver the promise of safe and traffic-flow effective car-following. On the contrary, large reaction times and poor string stability performances characterize commercial ACCs. While a huge research line is investigating the introduction of communication among vehicles to overcome the mentioned limitation, market adoption of connectivity-enhanced vehicles is...

  • A Randomized Controlled Trial on Automated Vehicle Technologies for Drivers With Parkinson's Disease
    by Sherrilene Classen on September 12, 2024 at 10:00 am

    Parkinson's disease (PD) negatively affects driver fitness. Few studies document the benefits of in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) and advanced-driver assistance systems (ADAS), the focus of this study, for drivers with PD. This study quantified the impact of IVIS and ADAS on the number of on-road driving errors. Drivers with PD (N = 107) drove a vehicle equipped with IVIS and ADAS in traffic. The activation of IVIS and ADAS resulted in fewer driver errors. Specifically, adaptive cruise...

  • An Improved Longitudinal Driving Car-Following System Considering the Safe Time Domain Strategy
    by Xing Xu on August 29, 2024 at 10:00 am

    Car-following models are crucial in adaptive cruise control systems, making them essential for developing intelligent transportation systems. This study investigates the characteristics of high-speed traffic flow by analyzing the relationship between headway distance and dynamic desired distance. Building upon the optimal velocity model theory, this paper proposes a novel traffic car-following computing system in the time domain by incorporating an absolutely safe time headway strategy and a...

  • Collision Avoidance Path Planning and Tracking Control for Autonomous Vehicles Based on Model Predictive Control
    by Ding Dong on August 29, 2024 at 10:00 am

    In response to the fact that autonomous vehicles cannot avoid obstacles by emergency braking alone, this paper proposes an active collision avoidance method for autonomous vehicles based on model predictive control (MPC). The method includes trajectory tracking, adaptive cruise control (ACC), and active obstacle avoidance under high vehicle speed. Firstly, an MPC-based trajectory tracking controller is designed based on the vehicle dynamics model. Then, the MPC was combined with ACC to design...

  • Optimizing road safety: integrated analysis of motorized vehicle using lattice ordered complex linear diophantine fuzzy soft set
    by K Ashma Banu on August 15, 2024 at 10:00 am

    In this manuscript, we delve into the realm of lattice ordered complex linear diophantine fuzzy soft set, which constitutes an invaluable extension to the existing Fuzzy set theories. Within this exploration, we investigate basic operations such as ⊕ and ⊗ , together with their properties and theorems. This manuscript is more amenable in two ways, i.e., it enables real-life problems involving parametrization tool and applications with an existing order between the components of the parameter set...