This idea is a spin off yesterdays.
Often times as driving I find myself on cruise control and behind another car. I am frequently perfectly happy staying behind the car.
However, there is a problem. I may find myself creeping closer to the car. So I slow down the cruise control by one increment. But now I begin lagging behind. So I increase it a bit, and once again begin creeping up on the car. It is especially frustrating while driving long stretches on fairly open roads.
A nice feature could be a 'pacing' button. A Doppler Radar installed in the front of the car could measure the speed / distance to the car ahead of you and attempt to match speed with it and maintain a steady distance. It could even modify the distance to allow for proper braking time, if need be, based on the current speed.
The system would of course need to have a delay. Otherwise a car speeding by could send your car speeding up. It would have to only react to a signal that has been detected consistently for the last thirty seconds or so.
One issue that this idea could have would be with people who use radar detectors. If the guy in front of you has a detector he may suddenly slow down out of concern that police are nearby, and that could be annoying.
I could also see this idea adding a not-insignificant cost to the cruise control system. This minor improvement may not be worth the cost.
However, if it could be done for a reasonable price, it could remove another annoyance from the road.
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Have comments about my ideas? If you see something wrong with them, leave a comment. I'll try to comment back. If you have seen these ideas implemented/mentioned somewhere before, leave a comment. I like to think I am 'original' but that doesn't mean somebody has not beaten me to the punch. Finally, if you just have something to say, well comment that as well.