Good Tidings, all.

I have a question, one that occurred to me on a recent trip through a notorious camera speed-trap jurisdiction near us. To play it safe, I engaged cruise control (but disengaged ACTIVE control); the Mazda, unlike our older Subie, holds the speed precisely. Going down a steep hill, I noted, for the first time, that the engine supplied most or all of the braking, that is held the speed as the engine revs climbed dramatically during the descent.

I wonder, does the car also apply brakes in these cases (or does so only as necessary)? I ask because the tailgaters — and we have quite a few here — concerned me a bit as we did not increase speed down the hill as they would have expected if not they did not see taillights flashing, and we were followed WAY too closely down the hill.

I’d love to grab the second car and check this out ourselves, but life issues, including a hit of COVID to the family, make doing so impossible for now.

Thanks

 

If you leave the active radar cruise control on, the car will automatically brake if a car is detected as being too close in front of you or if your speed is increasing rapidly past what it is set at (usually only happens going downhill). You can adjust the sensitivity of how close you want your car to be in the cruise control active radar mode by using the button on the right side of the steering wheel. The brake lights work normally as if you were driving manually, so you have nothing to worry about there. It's been an extremely clutch feature for me and my girlfriend as we have both taken road trips in our two CX-5s and used it religiously.

 

Thanks for the reply, Alexmed2002,

Yes, I should probably leave the active function on more often than just using standard cruise if I am concerned about brake lights engaging. I do appreciate how this car's system works: Peace-of-Mind.