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Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

This makes no sense to me. Driving involves all senses, not just vision - if you're not feeling what the car is doing because you're not engaged with the steering wheel what good is it to see what's around you? I also don't understand how one has trouble staying between the lines with minimal cognitive input after more than a few months of driving.

Oh! And also, moving within the lane is sometimes important for getting a better look at what's up ahead or behind you or expressing car "body language" that allows others to know you're probably going to change lanes soon.

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I drive a VW with lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking. It won't change lanes for me, but aside from the requirements that I have my hands on the wheel, could otherwise drive itself on the highway.

I commute mainly on the highway about 45-1hr each way every day and it makes a big difference for driver fatigue. I was honestly a bit surprised. Even though, I'm steering, it requires less effort. I don't have my foot on the gas and I'm not having to adjust my speed constantly.

Critically, though, I do have to pay attention to my surroundings. It's not taking so much out of my driving that I can't stay engaged to what's happening around me.

I don't have personal experience but friends with personal experience have sort of shifted my thinking on the topic. They'll note they do need to stay engaged but that it is genuinely useful on long drives in particular. The control handover is definitely an issue but so is manual driving in general. Their consensus is that the current state of the art is by no means perfect but it is improved and it's not like there aren't problems with existing manual driving even with some assistive systems.

My car requires hands on the wheel to continue to operate. So I do feel it moving.

> I also don't understand how one has trouble staying between the lines with minimal cognitive input after more than a few months of driving.

Once you have something assist you with that, you'll notice how much "effort" you are actually putting towards it.

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