Does cruise control save fuel?

[FlyinJ]

I'm assuming that if you have cruise control on and you are at the set speed with no other input it is not consuming any fuel at all? Much like turning off all correctional thrusters?

[EUCrider]

it seems like it uses more fuel.

[Konsaki]

It doesn't save fuel but locks your speed for more control to turn while travel.

[Chromatic Aberration]

If you want to save fuel get yourself going in a straight line and turn off driver assist. You will coast in that direction at the speed you were going and wont use any fuel, since the driver assist constantly applies reverse thrust when you arent accelerating.

Just remember to turn it back on again before you need to steer

[Skippy The Magnificent]

CC will use fuel at a constant rate when in use because it is stabilizing the truck from drifting.

The only way to conserve fuel is to turn off the stabilization feature (triangle shaped button in the center of all the light switches). This allows your truck to drift in space at a constant speed but you loose the stabilization feature. This can be handy if your going from say a trade center to a job center and you know there is little or no debris in your way. keep in mind what when stabilization is turned off, maneuvers become extremely more difficult to do.

[Lone Starr]

skippy i cant quote you for some reason but if you're driving in a straight line in theory it should make no difference. also turning off drive assist shouldnt save a ton of fuel compared to using cruise control either

[Konsaki]

Originally posted by Lone Starr:

skippy i cant quote you for some reason but if you're driving in a straight line in theory it should make no difference. also turning off drive assist shouldnt save a ton of fuel compared to using cruise control either

You'd think that but that's not how the game is programmed.

Your drive thrusters constantly burn on CC to maintain your speed and counter your 'stabilization thrusters' which are always burning for some weird reason.

When you turn of DA, all thrusters switch to idle until you change directions or engage the engine for acceleration or deceleration.

[ExodusGravemind]

Yes I'm pretty sure it does. You'll notice when you have it on that it only uses about half throttle once its at cruising speed.

[2ugly]

Originally posted by Chromatic Aberration:

If you want to save fuel get yourself going in a straight line and turn off driver assist. You will coast in that direction at the speed you were going and wont use any fuel, since the driver assist constantly applies reverse thrust when you arent accelerating.

Just remember to turn it back on again before you need to steer

Don't you wish the devs would turn off the stabs for the suits while in EVA or give the player an option to do so. Flying off spinning out of control in your suit after being hit by debris should be a thing.

Originally posted by Lone Starr:

skippy i cant quote you for some reason but if you're driving in a straight line in theory it should make no difference. also turning off drive assist shouldnt save a ton of fuel compared to using cruise control either

With the DA "off", no thrust is used to maintain forward speed. No fuel is being used. With cruise control "on" fuel is still used to maintain push against the opposing stabilizer slowing you down. In reality this is a bad design, but the game does it.

[Skippy The Magnificent]

Yep, like others stated, the game is coded in an odd way. If you apply real world physics, then yes, when you stop accelerating, you should maintain that speed and not use any fuel unless you try to change direction.

In the game, when DA is active, a constant fuel drain is being used for stabilization, and having CC active has to work against that stabilization. With DA inactive, there is no stabilization so you then truly "float" through space maintaining a constant speed unless you try to change direction.

The biggest problem is when you fly with DA inactive, your thrusters you can only turn up, down, left right and roll (along with accelerate and decelerate). There is no option for side thrust.

[Your weakness is your own]

Warning: this was a short evaluation with whatever state my save was in at the time, with a fully damaged truck, so probably no benefits from any upgrades, horrible testing area with rocks everywhere, sprinkle with salt before consuming.

That said, I did some quick, casual testing while looking at the fuel values... cruise is horrible, it's about as bad as being full throttle.
Floating with assist off is free.
"Rear" thrusters (I learned while doing this that means "the thrusters on the rear of the truck", not "rearward-firing thrusters"... haven't messed with the engine toggles since the demo) are very cheap.
Manual throttle (standard gameplay, assist on) is very efficient. Seems to be free while coasting, only using fuel while you're applying throttle. The overall cost to maintain speed compared to cruise is way smaller.

I did a whole five seconds of checking cruise at low speed, and it seemed to consume the same as higher speeds. Yikes.

Again, quick testing done with zero rigor to satisfy my curiosity and answer the basic question. Not only does cruise not save you fuel, it's way worse than not using it.

I also think cruise sandbags the throttle pretty hard, making it bad at speed changes. Haven't confirmed that yet.

[GrizzlyNick]

А кто нибудь знает, есть смысл отключать драйвер ассист если ты плывешь по прямой? Просто, на сколько вижу логику, драйвер ассист автоматически помогает корректировать движение трака дополнительными движками , но когда летишь прямо, они не задействуются и не могут расходовать топливо. Поэтому отключать нет смысла

[Engineer ツ]

If we try to avoid collisions and believe me it can be perfected we will save a lot of money. Similarly trade, while transporting goods between regions I get a lot of money outside of orders (this was the creators' intention) so it is worth putting points in the permissible weight of the truck in the talent tree. I know it is a bit off topic in this thread but I wanted to say that thanks to this I do not have problems with fuel and the tank is always filled to the brim. There is also an upgrade for the processor that manages fuel consumption and this is also of great importance.