I have one of the cheaper cars that has some of the newly standard assistance tech, and after about six months, I think the best of it is the adaptive cruise control. I didn't think it was more than a gimmick at first, but I've started using it, and it transfers a significant mental burden so that I feel more relaxed on the highway, almost as if I was a passenger. It complements a hybrid very well; somehow it's psychologically easier to follow someone slow when the car automatically keeps its distance.

However, the lane keeping assist does not seem like a good idea to me. It sort of works, but I never know if it will lose track of the lane suddenly. When there is an exit or something that breaks the lines, I think of the Tesla crash I read about. When there is a curve in the road, it seems like there is a threshold beyond which it doesn't try to follow. So it amounts to an unpredictable resistance of the power steering, and doesn't reduce the driver's workload at all, in my opinion. Maybe it's supposed to be used on straight highways, but if it worked without attention for a while, that seems even more hazardous.

I wonder if that could be a direction to go in - future cars could let the driver steer, but mostly figure out going and stopping on their own.