[chadgeidel]

How is this different than the automatic transmission? Antilock brakes? Traction control? Lane departure/encroachment warnings? Adaptive cruise control?

Or even older tech like "drive by wire" (your foot isn't directly connected to the throttle bodies) or manually adjusting the choke in carbureted vehicles?

These are innovations that have happened in my lifetime. I'm sure there are even older "car and driver sharing duties" examples others can come up with.

[robbrown451]

It's very different. But some of those things, like adaptive cruise control, get close. But even with adaptive cruise control, if you completely stop paying attention, you will be reminded very quickly that you are doing it wrong.

With this, you could go for hours without having to do a single thing, and then suddenly you are expected to jump in and take control with barely a second's notice. That is just bad human factors.

[chadgeidel]

I would refer to @mikeash's answer as I feel it addresses this question.

[robbrown451]

Again, I don't see how that is supposed to work. How long are people going to pay attention to "the big picture" when they still are only very rarely required to do something? If they don't have to do some action to actually keep the car on the road or to avoid getting honked at every 30 seconds or so, their minds will drift off.

This is just regular human nature. Sure you can do it for a while, but after a while you stop doing it.

I am quite sure that Tesla et al will discover soon enough you can't rely on people to step in like that. They just need to get their cars to work better than humans, all the time. (or as Elon Musk said, they should be at least an order of magnitude safer)