Instead of now where you force yourself to be fully awake, instead you will allow yourself to semi-snooze, until you hit a situation the computer can't handle - and then you are in real trouble.
And a complete stop on the freeway is not exactly safe.
Most who claim they would remain attentive are not aware that they are making false claims, and this likely includes a lot of HN visitors. The better the cars get at remaining on autopilot, the more complacent drivers will become. A really good autopilot is training its users into trusting it to handle everything. If your average commute results in autopilot practically never kicking in, your brain will naturally - regardless of your intent - find something else to occupy your attention. Reading a book in your lap, checking the weather, grooming yourself in the mirror, or even just spacing out and daydreaming.
Frankly I'm of the opinion that self-driving cars are something that will happen in 50+ years. When cities are built with "roads" that are actually tracks; tracks that are designed to handle only these cars and nothing else. I imagine we will not own such cars; they'll be more like subway/metro public transit systems, but with individual pods that hold a small number of people and with hundreds/thousands of small stations to embark/disembark from.
These vehicles should not be allowed until there is no manual takeover. If the vehicle cannot operate at all times on autopilot, it should not be on the road.
This is the only reference I've seen to that http://electrek.co/2016/04/24/tesla-autopilot-probability-ac....
I care a lot about what happens when autopilot disengages.
I truly and honestly believe it is a biological, psychological fact, that autopilot will result in less attentive occupants in the vehicle. We're going to blame "drivers" - who are really now just passengers, expected to sometimes take the wheel - for accidents caused by autopilots disengaging, because the driver "should have been in control". Except that most people are going to be mentally unable to maintain the kind of focus needed to be able to take over a failed autopilot.
Let me put it this way: I believe that today, if my mother were to cause an accident, she would have done something tangible to be deserving of being "at fault". In a future where my mother can be considered at fault for killing someone because she failed to take over an autopilot in under a second... that is not a future I want to experience.
I'm afraid of the moment we begin blaming people for loss of life caused by technology expecting us to interfere when it is innately difficult to do so.
The driver was texting while driving.
I've seen more instances since then.
If you ask me, people can't be trusted to be safe anyway. I'd rather have imperfect autonomous cars than people driving.
No one is advocating actually sleeping at the wheel, I thought my OP was clear about that.