With adaptive, you can come up on a car and it'll automatically adjust your speed for you by slowing you down, and when that car either speeds up or is no longer infront of you it'll automatically resume speed for which you had the cruise initially set. Pretty slick feature.
Hill Start Assist/Hill Descent Control
When you’re crawling up a steep hill, the standard Hill Start Assist feature automatically holds the brake on an incline to help prevent backward roll when switching your foot from the brake to the gas. This is especially helpful when towing big loads.
Conversely, when going downhill you need the Hill Descent Control, included on single-rear-wheel pickups with the FX4 Off-Road Package. To activate it, push the Hill Descent Control button, press the brake once to set the desired speed and hold the steering wheel. Then the system applies brake pressure as needed to descend grades at a controlled speed.