15:12 07-11-2025

Cruise control and fuel economy: when it helps and when it hurts

Many drivers have long believed that cruise control helps save fuel. The thinking is clear: electronics hold a steady speed without jerks or bursts of acceleration, avoiding waste. Tests, however, suggest that this isn’t always the case.

Auto expert Dmitry Novikov explained in an interview with 32CARS.RU that cruise control is most effective on flat highways with uniform traffic. Under those conditions, the system can trim gasoline consumption by 7–14%. In real-world use, though, the gain is often smaller—around 2%—and sometimes turns into extra fuel burn because adaptive systems react too eagerly to the accelerations of vehicles ahead.

On hilly routes the picture flips: trying to hold a set speed, the car adds throttle on climbs where a driver would typically ease off. In city traffic, the outcome depends on how dense the flow is—when the stream moves smoothly, the system can help, yet on an open road its persistence in maintaining 100 km/h may lead to higher consumption.

Novikov notes that the real strength of cruise control isn’t fuel economy, but comfort and reduced fatigue behind the wheel.

He concluded that it’s worth using for a steady pace and a calmer drive, since it’s the smooth driving style itself—not the electronics—that remains the surest route to saving fuel. In practice, that means treating cruise control as a tool for consistency, with any fuel saving as a pleasant bonus rather than a guarantee.