Cruise control vs. adaptive cruise control
 

New CX-5 owner here.

Do I have to start cruise control before starting the adaptive cruise control?

I'm a bit confused between the two.

Check it out here

HI. When you turn on cruise control the cruise icon will be green, this is adaptive cruise control. If you hold the cruise control button down about 2-3 seconds the cruise control icon will turn white, that is regular cruise. The difference is adaptive {green icon) keeps the distance between your car and the car you are following automatically, if they slow down so do you. Regular cruise control (white icon) does not automatically maintain your following distance, so if the leading car slows down it is dependent on you to apply your brakes to not rear-end them.
I will never own another car without adaptive cruise control (it is that useful to me), especially if it also does stop & go for traffic jams (like my 2020 CX 5 does).
Hope this helps.

Today I got to use my Adaptive Cruise Control (2021 CX-5) for the very first time. It works incredibly well, and is very intuitive. I first turned in on as I was cruising on the Interstate, but as I approached home, I found (to my great surprise) that it also works really well on secondary roads in the suburbs. Like many others, I purposely did not brake as I approached the car stopped at a light in front of me, and it brought my car to a complete, comfortable and safe stop. Absolutely amazing.

Love my Mazda........................... Frank

Yeah, the adaptive cruise control in the CX-5 is really great, makes road trips very enjoyable.

No question, ACC is a huge safety feature as well as takes the constant pressure off your right leg on a long drive. A few cars ago, when I first used the ACC, my right leg was almost aching because I had it hovering over the pedal just "in case" the ACC didn't work. I can't imagine getting a car w/o this feature.

I just joined this forum today (I was previously a member of a Miata forum for my 2006, but traded for a 2018 CX-5). I appreciate this thread, because I've had the same confusion with the various cruise control features and I don't find the manual or even the many YouTubes helpful. I'm sensing there are actually three levels of cruise control: REGULAR cruise control, like the old days where you set the speed and it just stays at that speed until you hit the brake; ADAPTIVE cruise control, which uses radar to stay a predetermined distance from the car ahead of you; and STOP AND GO adaptive cruise control, which is pretty amazing, but I think probably burns a LOT of gas and brake shoe, so I likely won't use it much, but I WOULD use the adaptive cruise control without stop-and-go. If that is an option, can someone help me understand how to activate it? Thanks in advance for assisting this CX-5 newby.

See my previous post in this tread. (Youtube video)

Thanks, BWJ
 

Thanks, BWJ. I had actually watched your video a couple times earlier, before I joined this site.

Got to chime in here - We have a 2015 CX5 Diesel, purchased recently as a used import and the Adaptive Cruise control is amazing.

To really test it (Warning - its not auto pilot :)) I was driving home on a relatively bendy main highway and I could set adaptive and it would match the speed of the vehicle in front even when it was rapidly slowing for sharp turns. I could just about rely on it (And the competence of the driver ahead) to do all my braking for me.

Obviously there are BIG caveats here

1) The car in front was never going to handle as well as the CX5 so if he went round at a speed I knew I could
2) It was really an experiment to see how reactive the braking and slowing was and it was VERY good - BUT every now and then when the corner was sharp enough the car was far enough round the radar didn't see it and would start speeding up to my set speed so doing this is a bit nuts.

So don't do it but its reassuring that if I ever have a moment of distraction and the car in front brakes suddenly I know I can rely on the ACC to react in the time it takes for me to realise and react.

PS - Also on a two lane motorway that was empty in the evening I set the lane position feature and it steered the car on auto around gentle bends - I wouldn't want to do it if there was other traffic and I was hovering mm from the steering wheel - It would have looked like I was drunk to a following vehicle as it didn't seem to keep to the middle of the lane - As the curve came up and it got close to the edge of the lane it would adjust and follow the lines but it sat on the edge of the curve. Again - Good feature to help cope with distraction or incompetence at the wheel. I was amazed for a 2015 car how good it was though. I thought it was just a warning but it actually steers and corrects your line.