Highpark

Going down a hill, if the cruise is on, it applies the brakes. I can't stand this. Is there a way to disable cruise control braking?

Reggie

I don't think it is applying brakes but rather engine braking alone.

pacod

I have experienced this as well. I can't say with certainty that the brakes are applied, but it sure feels like it, and I have noticed the brake lights come on as well. No idea how to disable it, although that would defeat the purpose of having cruise control.

rdA4WtQ5

Brakes definately applied, you can see the brake lights go on at night. Would be nice to be able to turn that off with VCDS. I asked them years ago about it and they knew nothing about it back them. I toggle the cruise off on the downhills to save my brakes. Our 2008 does not apply the brakes.

Reggie

Since I have a 011' mine may not come on.

Q5 Bob

From the 2013 Owners Manual page 95, "the speed is kept constant by modifying engine power or through an active brake intervention".

MP4.2+6.0

It uses the brakes too. My 2006 A8 w/ adaptive cruise is the same. So was my 2004 Toyota Sienna.

It will actually apply them fairly aggressively if another vehicle pulls into your lane in less than the pre set following distance. Or very rarely, on winding multilane freeways (like Interstate 80 in the CA Sierras) if it misreads a slow vehicle in a different lane as being in yours. Typically very good at tracking--better than my Toyota Sienna was--but in weird situations like changing radius curves it can't really perform the calculations correctly using a combination of the forward radar and the angle sensor. Where a curve tightens up it can misread a semi struggling up a grade in the tighter part of the curve in the slow/truck lane and can get on the brakes aggressively. Thus, a situation to avoid using it, or know the issue in sweeping multilane decreasing radius curves and be ready to disengage quickly or put foot on gas to override.

Meanwhile to OP's post, no known way I have heard of to turn off that element, nor have I seen that on other vehicles w/ adaptive. What I find you can do is to marginally bump the pre-set speed up if you want when coasting downhill, sometimes a few times, and then bring it back down once the downgrade is over. W/in the first few MPH of speed over the setting it doesn't immediately intervene w/ the brakes, and the added speed bump up timed correctly keeps it so without accelerating either. Once you do it a few times, you find the pattern w/out much hassle.

Q-Branch

I like the braking feature most of the time, but if I want to coast I just bump the cruise control stick forward to cancel and then pull it back to resume the cruise after I've coasted. The Q seems to be pretty forgiving with the resume speed, so I just resume the cruise within +/- 3 MPH of the set speed. I've driven a Toyota and a Buick that both go crazy if they aren't resumed on exactly the set speed. The Toyota would basically floor the accelerator if it was resumed from 1 MPH below the set speed.

apohis

I really dislike this "feature" and I hope someone figures out a way to disable it.

gtwagon941

You do realize that the purpose of cruise control is to control/maintain a single, driver determined speed, right? Well, gravity and going downhill tends to cause the vehicle to speed up, above that set speed. Brakes are the only way to fix that issue. If you're not on cruise control you can see the hill coming and lift in advance to maintain speed. I'm sure some day that sort of "smart car" will exist, but until then you're gonna have to either turn the CC off or raise the speed a bit on the hill to allow the car to coast and the computer not to see a speed that is out of the allowable range.