What controls cruise speed? Brakes?

Jerrylee

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I can’t find the answer to this question. 2021 Palisade Cali. When driving with the cruise turned on and the cruise causes the vehicle to slow down, what does that? Is it the brakes or transmission, or something else? If it’s the brakes, it will cause brakes to wear quickly, right? Same question when in adaptive cruise and it maintains the correct distance? It seems to me that both settings are too sensitive.
 
If it is a mild change in speed it is simply going to let off the electronically controlled throttle (there is no cable from the pedal to the throttle body). Essentially it is coasting. I have felt it downshift at times as well. But if you come over a hill crest and are on a notable slope where coasting would lead to a speed increase of more than a couple mph - it will engage the brakes. Unless you are going up and down mountains it's not going to cause any excessive wear vs. if you were driving it manually and still needed to apply brakes.
 
If it is a mild change in speed it is simply going to let off the electronically controlled throttle (there is no cable from the pedal to the throttle body). Essentially it is coasting. I have felt it downshift at times as well. But if you come over a hill crest and are on a notable slope where coasting would lead to a speed increase of more than a couple mph - it will engage the brakes. Unless you are going up and down mountains it's not going to cause any excessive wear vs. if you were driving it manually and still needed to apply brakes.
Thank you for your reply. I have often wondered if the brakes and brake lights come on. It seems the cruise is so sensitive that I can feel it braking and then accelerate often to stay right on the number. It also does that when using adaptive cruise behind a car. It just seems too sensitive to me. If the brake lights come on that often, it would surely bug the person behind me! Another car I had before this one, and my pickup doesn’t do like this Palisade does. But I know that if it uses the brakes every time, it will wear them out soon. I had a Lincoln that somehow used the transmission to slow it down when going down a hill without gearing down, or so said the shop foreman.
 
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