Your trouble with the cruse may have been because newer cars try to adjust the speed to keep you from getting too close to cars in front of you. I've seen this auto-adjust feature confused by cars in the other lanes, so that also could have been the problem.
Everything on the opposite side sounds strange. I had to deal with that in Japan, where they drive on the other side so the steering wheel and all the controls are reversed. Tough to get used to. But why would they reverse the controls in an American car...? Weird.
That could be what was going on. It was frustrating to say the least. Especially when there were no cars in front of me. The opposite wasn't anything as drastic as driving on the left, but it was just the little things. Up to shut the wipers off versus down... Etc.