What is the differntion between accelerator and throttle?

[Telecolor 3007]

What is the difference between accelerator and throttle? Some cars did have a throttle lever. That couldn't be used as an accelerator or cruise control?

[zeno]

We just call it a gas pedal. All the same thing to me.
Cruise control just keeps the car at the same speed. Set it for say 75 MPH
& it will stay there unless you use the brakes or step on the gas.
Many variations on how it works. I have had cruise on all my cars from
apx 1970 models to date. Never use it. Old cars gave you a strange
feeling but newer ones are quite refined. I still want to drive my
car / truck NOT have it drive me.

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[old_tv_nut]

The only difference I can think of is that the throttle lever would not have a spring return, so you could set it at a fixed point. This could maintain approximately constant speed on flat ground, I suppose.

[nasadowsk]

"We just call it a gas pedal. All the same thing to me."

My diesel truck, I call it the diesel pedal

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by zeno

.... I still want to drive my
car / truck NOT have it drive me.
73 Zeno
LFOD !

Sometimes I feel this way, and sometimes not. I do appreciate cruise control on long interstate trips. The cruise on my Mustang is smart enough to use engine braking on steep hills. The first time this happened, I wasn't expecting it and it made me smile. But it can't anticipate what's coming, so is always a little behind on compensating a series of short hills and declines. In that case, I much prefer to control the speed myself.

The next car I get (if and when) probably will have adaptive cruise that adjusts speed to the traffic ahead, but I will still prefer to do it myself in rolling terrain or winding roads.

[Electronic M]

Throttle controls in addition to the gas pedal were an early form of cruise control. The 1940 Ford's had a throttle knob as an option. As stated they didn't compensate for hills and I doubt pre war throttle controls would deactivate on braking like modern cruise systems (though that might not have mattered with the nearly all cars then being manual).

All my cars have cruise control. I typically don't use it unless I'm on an open/relaxing interstate highway drive over an hour long... Especially if I'm going somewhere in my safety toe work shoes....those things make my legs hurt if I work the pedals with them too long. If traffic is bad or I'm late and need to drive faster than traffic I don't use cruise.

I like cruise better than a lot of the modern autopilot/braking/lane departure nanny systems because you can at least turn cruise off... From what I understand you have to yank fuses and things like that to defeat the nannies in newer cars.

I'm not gonna text and drive so if I'm drifting lanes or doing something sketchy I damn well mean to be doing it and I don't want no stinking computer getting in my way.

[old_tv_nut]

This study says 2/3 of drivers find lane departure systems annoying and turn them off if they can:
https://www.consumerreports.org/car-...for-most-owne/

[Telecolor 3007]

You can used them as a cruise control, but you can used them an a accelerator?

[MadMan]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

What is the difference between accelerator and throttle? Some cars did have a throttle lever. That couldn't be used as an accelerator or cruise control?

In modern car parlance, the accelerator refers to the gas pedal. Specifically the pedal ONLY. Throttle refers to the butterfly valve that meters the amount of air going into the engine.

The difference between the two words is especially important in modern 'drive-by-wire' cars that use electronically controlled throttle valves, where the gas pedal is appropriately called the 'Accelerator Pedal Position sensor,' because they become two very different and separate components. As opposed to a traditional cable operated throttle, where it was all sort of one piece of machinery together.

On some older (read: antique) cars there was a throttle control lever, sometimes also a gas pedal. I'm not sure when the syntax was refined down to 'accelerator' but it was sometime after throttle levers were out of fashion.

Originally Posted by zeno

I have had cruise on all my cars from
apx 1970 models to date. Never use it. Old cars gave you a strange
feeling but newer ones are quite refined. I still want to drive my
car / truck NOT have it drive me.

I like the older cable operated cruise controls, specifically 90s Chryslers, like my LeBaron. When you turn the cruise on, there is no indicator light. Instead, the system pulls the gas pedal out from under your foot - tactile feedback to let you know it's on - and then eases it back to where you had set it to. Modern drive-by-wire cars kind of suck at this, because you can turn on cruise and have no idea it's working, until the system has to accelerate to maintain speed.

[Telecolor 3007]

But did the accelerator and the throttle performed different functions or where the function where the same?