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Comment by cmpb | Hacker News Reader

I disagree. One feature my car has is to pull me back into the lane when I veer out of it (Subaru's lane keep assist). That is still incremental improvement towards "full self driving". I agree, however, that Tesla's Autopilot is not functional enough, and any tool designed to allow humans to remove their hands from the wheel should not require their immediate attention in any way.

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I think people just assume Tesla's Autopilot is more capable than it really is.

My car has adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist, but I'm not relying on either for anything more complex than sipping a drink while on the highway.

Yep, if anything they’re just a way to make long drives or stop and go highway traffic more tolerable. When I got my first car with those features it seemed like a gimmick, but they really help to reduce fatigue.

Tesla’s autopilot does not allow you to remove your hands from the wheel. You must keep them on, and apply torque occasionally, to keep it engaged.

In reality, it'll let you get away with going handsfree for upwards of 30 seconds. That's more than long enough to lose your attention.

I think that's actually a step towards a local maximum that makes us less likely to achieve actual FSD. The safer we can make AI-guided driving where a person is still in control, the higher the bar becomes for a solo AI to be significantly safer than the alternatives.

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