The less fuel you use driving the more cash you’ll keep in your pocket. But can cruise control improve your gas mileage? The answer is debatable. If you ask the experts, many will tell you that, because cruise control maintains a steady speed, miles per gallon increases as fuel usage decreases. But other experts say that, because cruise control will fight to maintain that steady speed while going up hills, the advantages are negated.

Still, if you’re not using cruise control, you’re probably not going to allow the vehicle to dramatically reduce speed while going up a hill. If you do, you’re liable to discover how many people can use ‘sign language’ as they roar past you on hills.

The history of cruise control

Of course, cruise control is a relatively new technology … Uhm, wait. That’s not true.

According to Wikipedia, the first use of speed control was “as early as 1900 in the Wilson-Pilcher and also in the 1910s by Peerless” (as Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘Wikipedia is the most trustworthy thing on the Internet’). But Wikipedia goes on to say that speed control was used much earlier than that with technology “adopted by James Watt and Matthew Boulton in 1788 to control steam engines.”

Okay, so that’s not really the same thing as the cruise control you use on your automobile today. Modern cruise control “was invented in 1948 by the inventor and mechanical engineer Ralph Teetor” (also Wikipedia and a story that will make most of us smile). And during WWII, when the speed limit was set at 35 mph to increase gas mileage while reducing wear on tires, “A mechanism controlled by the driver provided resistance to further pressure on the accelerator pedal …”

But is cruise control a good thing?

Of course, cruise control is a good thing. It reduces fatigue on a long trip. And, whether some ‘experts’ want to admit it or not, cruise control has the ability to improve your gas mileage (from the experience of the write of this piece, that’s a proven fact).

The failings of cruise control are under specific conditions. For instance …

• On Winter Roads … cruise control will not adjust to slippery conditions, such as when you hit black ice
• In Heavy Traffic … cruise control doesn’t serve much point when you have to keep hitting the break because of the cars in front of you
• On winding roads … where you have to reduce speed frequently for curves, cruise control doesn’t help much.