'61 Cadillac Dangerous Cruise Control

[electra225]

I wasn't aware of this one. This guy should do a video of Buick cruise control from 1963 to 1968 with the little chain from the actuator that could hold get entangled on the spark plug wires and hold the throttle wide open.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-amAN9g5CFk

[walyfd]

Blah blah blah until I fast-forwarded to the actual cruise control portion. I do agree that switch was poorly designed and located. Cadillac started with that style wiper switch in 1957.

As for the cruise engaging by "mistake"... um no... the only way for that to happen is A: the speed of the car has to match or exceed what the lever is set for. Once that speed is reached, the pedal gets harder to push. Cruise will only engage when the button (old washer button) is pressed.

Now, what COULD happen is one could confuse the cruise switch for the old wiper switch and IF DRIVING IN RAIN mistakenly increase the car speed but the cruise would already have to be ON. A whole lot of booboos would have to align for this to happen. And you shouldn't use cruise in the rain anyway, especially not back then.

In '62, Cadillac and Oldsmobile went to a speed calibrated dial. I installed cruise on my car and it works beautifully.