JCG1

Hi I have a 2022 Audi A5 Coupe Premium Plus.

1. Does anyone know if the "adaptive" part of the cruise control can be disabled? Suffice to say, the adaptive cruise control is super annoying. This is first time I have ever had such a thing in a car, and call me old-school, but I HATE it. I like just NORMAL cruise control that lets ME ALONE decide if I want to speed up or slow down.

2. Separate from "adaptive" part of the cruise control - I find the cruise control in this car (when there are no other cars around so the "adaptive" part is not an issue) is not as good at holding set speed as other cars I have owned. Especially going uphill, the speed drops by as much as 4 mph before it gets its act together. I mean, I can do better than that with my foot! Past cars (including Audis) I have owned never wavered more than 1 or 2 mph from set speed regardless of incline. Rather disappointing.

SCarGuy

1. No - but it’s settings (distance, the drive mode is used to accelerate to your desired speed) are all user selectable

2. guess it depends on the level of incline. I live in the hills, and have a fairly steady uphill drive home, 30 mins, from work. I use the cruise on those drives often, as the speed limit changes multiple times. Never noticed any issues

JCG1

1. I'm aware that I can modulate the distance - even the shortest distance is way too long. It's the surrender of control to the car that is disappointing. I want to be in control, I don't want the car controlling me. I understand this is supposed to be a safety enhancement, but to me its just detracts from the driving experience. In other cars, the adaptive part can be disabled. If I wanted a self driving car I woulda bought a Tesla haha.

It's my fault - I obviously did not do my due diligence when I bought the car. Had I known that the adaptive part could not be disabled, that would have been a non-starter for me cause I use cruise control all the time, and the adaptive part sucks a**.

2. I'm glad you have not had any issues! But my cruise control on inclines is nowhere near as good as the A3 I used to drive on the same degree of incline. And the BMW before that. And the VW before that. What can I say.

Am I the only one around who likes normal cruise control and thinks ACC sucks a**????

SCarGuy

The distance is done in seconds, not feet.
It defaults to distance first, then Speed, up to your max set speed. 3 seconds is 3 seconds, that is the max. If that’s too close for you, idk what to say, beyond suggesting you lower the speed by 1mph. That will then increase distance further

I have normal cruise on 2 car, and ACC on 2 others. Vastly prefer the latter. Not even a close
comparison. The last thing I want is an autonomous anything as well.

superswiss

1. As said, no the adaptive part can't be disabled. I'm of the complete opposite opinion and find regular cruise control absolutely useless. I've never used it much, because there always seems to be somebody ahead who can't seem to keep a steady speed. If you are on an open road, then the adaptive part plays no role and it's just like regular CC, but if you are following other cars it gets old if you constantly have to fiddle with the CC stalk to avoid crashing into them and then speed up again when they wake up. Basically if you didn't want it, you shouldn't have opted for the driving assistance package and then it would have had regular CC.
2. This is a setting in the MMI. It's part of the predictive assistance something feature. I forgot the actual name. There's a "with tolerance" setting that causes it to not always accelerate to the set speed. It's for more fuel efficient driving, but it can be turned off and then it will work like any other CC and accelerate to the set speed even going uphill.

As said earlier, adaptive cruise is phenomenal once you learn to trust it and get used to it. As said, the current Drive Select mode controls how it accelerates. In my RS5 I found for daily driving, setting it to Auto with the shortest following distance worked the best. In Comfort it was too lazy to catch up to the cars ahead. I never tried Dynamic, though, as I always drove myself when in Dynamic. I had an earlier generation in my RS5 which wasn't able to stop the car completely in stop&go traffic, so it was a bit crappy in those situations, because I always had to be prepared for it to just disable on me below 19 mph or so. Now in my AMG I have a more modern system that comes to a complete stop and also stays ready for up to 30 seconds. That in combination with active steering assist makes the car effectively drives itself in stop&go traffic. It's absolutely phenomenal and makes driving in traffic way more relaxed. I don't know anybody who actually enjoys driving in stop&go traffic, so letting the car handle most of it is great.

JCG1

OK 2 scenarios:

1. You are driving regular cruise control. You approach car driving 3 mph slower in front of you. You get two (or one) car distance behind them, then change lanes to pass. You never have to change your speed. Or, maybe you modulate your speed slightly with the lever to decrease your set speed one or two mph before you are able to pass, then pass and increase to desired speed again with said lever.

2. You are driving with active cruise control. You approach car driving 3 mph slower in front of you. You are 3+ car distance behind them when your car slows down. It takes you a few seconds to even realize that your car slowed down. Once you realize, you move into left lane to pass (because why would you want to continue to travel at the speed of the slow car), and then the your car decides to go back to set speed. By the time you pass them, you have two other cars behind you impatient with your overly cautious driving.

I dunno, but scenario 1 seems more fun (and time efficient) to me. As far as safety, maybe #2 is better (and maybe ore fuel efficient) but I'm just talking driving experience here. ACC sucks a**. Takes all the fun away.

Obvi if there is heavier traffic and lots of cars with unsteady speeds I would never be using cruise control to begin with.

superswiss

As somebody who has had adaptive cruise for almost 10 years now, I have only one response to this. BS! This has been debunked numerous time. ACC has different distance settings. 1 - 3 seconds. If you wait until the car slows down before changing lanes you are doing it wrong or have the wrong distance setting. You should have changed lanes a while ago. There's a symbol in the dash that comes on when it sees the car in front. It comes on several car lengths before it even starts slowing down. Even if you are not paying attention to the symbol, you see the car ahead, change lanes in time and keep going. If you get to the point where it slows you down, you haven't paid attention and are cutting it too close. Simple as that.

Now I am gonna say that Audi's system is not the best. Newer systems can also change lanes autonomously. Either automatically as is the case with Tesla's Autopilot or when the driver indicates. The latter is how it works in my AMG. If I approach a slower vehicle ahead, I simply indicate, and it changes lanes if the adjacent lane is free or waits for it to be free and then changes lanes. If I miss the window and it has to slow down to not crash into the slower car ahead, once it can change lanes it speeds up in the current lane closing in on the car ahead, and then changes lanes. Just like a human driver would. So just saying, there are different generations of adaptive cruise.

JCG1

Haha I am probably a lot older than you. I'm not used to all this tech! You seem to like all the autonomous stuff.

Regular cruise control is about as autonomous as I want to be driving a car. I've got cruise control modulation down to a science by manually manipulating the set speed, so I don't appreciate the adaptive part. And even at the shortest distance, my car slows down adaptively way sooner than I ever would ever even think of slowing down. And then when obstacle clears, it speeds back up to set speed way slower than if I were to manually modulate it. Maybe I have a lemon? I dunno. Just seems like there is just way too much tech and it has stripped some of the enjoyment out of driving for me. Safer? Probably.

But mine seems to be the unpopular opinion around here. Hey, maybe I just have to get used to it!

superswiss

I'm curious now about how old you are :-). I'm turning 50 next year. I am a software engineer, though, so obviously I like technology. However, my generation is all about using technology as a tool to make life easier, but we still know how to do things w/o the technology. I like level 2 automation, which is what most cars currently have, but not really interested in automation beyond that. They assist with mundane driving tasks such as keeping your speed on a long trip or make it less annoying in stop&go traffic, and active steering assist to make it more comfortable to keep the car in its lane on long drives and effectively steer it in stop&go situations. These are all situations that really aren't very interesting from a driving perspective. I am however a passionate driver and I drive performance cars mostly, so I don't want to be driven, I want to drive, but the driving has to be interesting. I do lots of long road trips to great driving destinations. I'm known to drive up to 12 hours a day on such trips, so having some assistance makes that possible and I frequently go for drives in the deserted canyons around here to have fun with the car and the assistance systems allow me to chill on the way there and on the way back reserving my energy for the fun driving. Used for the right purpose, automation is a boon.

You can always override ACC with the throttle, so if it's not accelerating fast enough just use the throttle to get back to the set speed. Admittedly, these systems get tuned for specific models. An RS model like I had is overall more sporty even when using ACC. So is the AMG I currently drive. I have used ACC in an A4 when I had it as a loaner, but cars at that level are just way too boring for me, ACC or not. It does sound like, though, you'd be better off with one that doesn't have the driver assistance package. It's optional in the Premium Plus as far as I remember. Is there a reason you chose that particular car?

SCarGuy

it sounds more like the preferences aren’t set correctly and you haven’t looked at the manual at all to adjust them. Perhaps an appointment with your salesperson is in order.

I have the same setup in virtually the same car (S4). I’m not a kid (nearing 50), and the way the cruise behaves both in heavy and light traffic, is as natural as a person driving. It was the sole reason I opted for my Prestige when I ordered it (on mine, the only way to get ACC was a Prestige)