KahnBB6
Well-Known Member
Standard cruise control function has been a thing on manual cars for decades. I retained that function in my manual Lexus SC and it's accurate down to 1mph adjustments at pretty much any speed you set it to. It's still awesome to have available for long trips in the big cruiser. Though it uses an old style motor-actuated cable to the throttle plate since there is no drive-by-wire in such an old vehicle.
It's not hard at all to implement in today's manual cars that don't use any of that old and clunky physical hardware but rather just issue commands to the electronic throttle module.
I think the main issue is that with "adaptive" cruise control systems there is often a full integration with newly required automatic braking functions and in order for that to work in today's cars you can't have a manual car in gear while the rest of the vehicle safety systems are engaging the AEB system and would otherwise need to be able to have control over which gear the transmission is currently in should a severe emergency situation initiate a panic braking measure.
If the engine is humming along in 6th gear on the highway and the AEB system slams on the brakes and the engine speed drops below what is considered minimum to avoid stuttering and/or lugging then that could present issues.
I think the solution today for even the most basic of modern cruise control systems in manual transmission cars is probably to warn the driver and temporarily cut off cruise functionality altogether when an emergency stop situation occurs.
This would seem to eliminate the possibility of integrating any kind of "adaptive" cruise control system in a modern manual transmission car since the main problem is that the driver is in sole control of the transmission gear selection with no way for the ECU to override these individual and unpredictable decisions.
Just my guess though... I could be wrong. As we've seen, different manufacturers seem to handle implementing modern safety systems with their few remaining manual transmission cars differently.
...
I know that Bosch has patented a novel system that allows for traditional three-pedal manual transmission operation but which includes a kind of ECU-controlled emergency override that can automatically shift the transmission into neutral in an emergency situation. It can also do much more than that.
I dug up an older article on it here:
https://www.motorbeam.com/bosch-e-clutch-technology-could-soon-feature-on-small-cars/
We may not ever see it implemented at this point but in 2014 it was an interesting solution they developed which could potentially extend the life of manual transmissions a bit longer as integration with modern safety systems becomes ever more complex and demanding.
Ford and Toyota have also worked on similar auto-actuated clutch pedal systems as well, I think.
It's not hard at all to implement in today's manual cars that don't use any of that old and clunky physical hardware but rather just issue commands to the electronic throttle module.
I think the main issue is that with "adaptive" cruise control systems there is often a full integration with newly required automatic braking functions and in order for that to work in today's cars you can't have a manual car in gear while the rest of the vehicle safety systems are engaging the AEB system and would otherwise need to be able to have control over which gear the transmission is currently in should a severe emergency situation initiate a panic braking measure.
If the engine is humming along in 6th gear on the highway and the AEB system slams on the brakes and the engine speed drops below what is considered minimum to avoid stuttering and/or lugging then that could present issues.
I think the solution today for even the most basic of modern cruise control systems in manual transmission cars is probably to warn the driver and temporarily cut off cruise functionality altogether when an emergency stop situation occurs.
This would seem to eliminate the possibility of integrating any kind of "adaptive" cruise control system in a modern manual transmission car since the main problem is that the driver is in sole control of the transmission gear selection with no way for the ECU to override these individual and unpredictable decisions.
Just my guess though... I could be wrong. As we've seen, different manufacturers seem to handle implementing modern safety systems with their few remaining manual transmission cars differently.
...
I know that Bosch has patented a novel system that allows for traditional three-pedal manual transmission operation but which includes a kind of ECU-controlled emergency override that can automatically shift the transmission into neutral in an emergency situation. It can also do much more than that.
I dug up an older article on it here:
https://www.motorbeam.com/bosch-e-clutch-technology-could-soon-feature-on-small-cars/
We may not ever see it implemented at this point but in 2014 it was an interesting solution they developed which could potentially extend the life of manual transmissions a bit longer as integration with modern safety systems becomes ever more complex and demanding.
Ford and Toyota have also worked on similar auto-actuated clutch pedal systems as well, I think.
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