adaptive cruise control

noun

Updated on: 12 May 2018

Definition of adaptive cruise control

: a system in an automobile that can automatically adjust the settings of the cruise control in response to external driving conditions

Jaguar's adaptive cruise control … tracks the speed and position of the car in the lane ahead and automatically adjusts the speed to keep a safe time interval.
—Bruce McCall

Recent Examples of adaptive cruise control from the Web

Technology like automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection plus adaptive cruise control have left the ivory towers of Mercedes-Benz and Volvo to hardworking offerings.

— tom voelk, New York Times, "Cars That Will Get Your Grad Down the Road of Life," 19 Apr. 2018
Nissan's combination of adaptive cruise control and lane keeping—continues to be one of the better systems on sale.

— jonathan m. gitlin, Ars Technica, "The Nissan Rogue is a huge sales success, but is it any good? A review," 18 Apr. 2018
In addition, the C-HR gets lane keeping assist, adaptive cruise control that works to a standstill, and a special pre-collision system that can detect pedestrians and vehicles.

— jonathan elfalan, edmunds, USA TODAY, "Advanced driver aids aren't just for luxury cars, Edmunds says," 6 Apr. 2018
The Civic gets its Honda Sensing safety features, including automatic braking, adaptive cruise control and lane assist, standard in most models.

— tom voelk, New York Times, "Cars That Will Get Your Grad Down the Road of Life," 19 Apr. 2018
Audi knows how to do tech The latest active safety and driver assistance hardware, like adaptive cruise control, a 360-degree camera view on-screen when reversing, lane keeping alert/assistance, and even traffic sign recognition are optional.

— jim resnick, Ars Technica, "The 2018 Audi RS5: Effortless speed and a magic carpet ride," 7 Apr. 2018
After recovering the logs from the crash site, Tesla acknowledged that Autopilot was on, with the adaptive cruise control follow distance set to a minimum.

— andrew j. hawkins, The Verge, "Tesla says Autopilot was engaged during fatal Model X crash," 31 Mar. 2018
In a blog post published this evening, Tesla says the logs in the car’s computer show Autopilot was on, with the adaptive cruise control distance set to the minimum.

— jack stewart, WIRED, "Tesla's Autopilot Was Involved in Another Deadly Car Crash," 30 Mar. 2018
The program is designed to function as an adaptive cruise control system, applying braking and accelerating as needed, and helping the driver steer straight too.

— charles fleming, latimes.com, "Nissan turns out a new battery electric Leaf," 9 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'adaptive cruise control.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.