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Claim: Using cruise control on wet roads or during heavy rain can cause you to lose control of your vehicle.
Examples:
Origins: We began seeing this cautionary tale turn up in inboxes in November 2002. Although these accounts are probably "real" in the sense that they indeed reflect someone's attempt to describe an automotive mishap that actually happened to him, the explanation about a hydroplaning car's suddenly accelerating and "taking off like a rocket" due to the use of cruise control is a garbled one probably reflecting the author's misunderstanding of what had occurred. Nonetheless, the warning inherent to the tale — don't engage your vehicle's cruise control on slippery or wet roads — is well worth heeding. Snow, ice, slush, or even rain can cause wheel-spin and loss of control, situations to which drivers must react quickly. Although cruise control can generally be cut off by the driver's simply tapping the brake pedal, the extra reaction time required for a motorist relying upon cruise control to recognize the danger of the situation when his wheels begins to spin or slide on a slippery surface, bring his foot up off the floor to the brake pedal, and disengage the cruise control can be crucial (especially for drivers lured into a hazardous level of inattentiveness on long, flat stretches of road). According to the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia's
The only way to stop this wheel-spin and maintain control is to immediately reduce power. However, an activated cruise control system will continue to apply power, keeping the wheels spinning. By the time you disengage the cruise control, you may have lost control.
An example from the weekly "Drive It Forever'' automotive column by New York Times Syndicate writer Bob Sikorsky provides a description of one such occurrence:
Dear Bob: Cruise control can be dangerous. I have experienced, when driving in heavy rain or slush conditions with the cruise control set at a speed of around
Wet-road driving is fraught with dangers that are not always immediately apparent. Just a thin layer of water lying on pavement can send an unsuspecting car hydroplaning into another lane — the car's wheels skim along the water's surface instead of making contact with the road. Also, roads constantly accumulate oily substances loosed by car exhaust, and this residue settles deep into the pavement. Rain brings this oil back to the surface, making roads especially slippery during that first hour of downpour or misting.
I have been lucky to be able to catch it happening and touch the brake and recover quickly. As a former pilot, I literally wear the car and feel its moves and respond accordingly. Use of the cruise control in these conditions can be dangerous. Enjoy your column every week — keep up the good work. Sincerely, B.D., Albany, N.Y. A: While I haven't heard of this particular problem with cruise control, I can see your point — and indeed the experience you describe sounds like a hazardous one. The safety implications for an average driver are considerable. I agree, in short: In heavy rain or slush, the cruise should not be set at a high speed. For that matter, though, even without the cruise engaged, high speed under the aforesaid conditions is dangerous in and of itself. You really shouldn't be driving at Likewise, winter driving carries with it a similar set of perils. Ice, snow, and sleet can make for dangerously slippery conditions, but so too can innocuous-looking slush and all-but-invisible "black ice." Those who habitually rely upon their vehicles' cruise controls should eschew the practice during the winter months, because the moments it takes to disengage cruise may be moments you don't have during a Barbara "spin city" Mikkelson Last updated: 17 November 2006 Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008 by snopes.com. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.  Sources:
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