[theptip]

> The safety driver should have something to do

I agree with that, and the NTSB should consider adding this to their requirements when approving test programs of this sort.

But stepping back, I think there's a very significant difference in culpability between "safety driver couldn't react in time because they zoned out" and "safety driver was watching a sitcom". In the first case, the driver was trying to do their job, and the nature of the ask made it difficult/impossible. In the second case, the driver was knowingly not doing their job, and was knowingly engaging in unsafe behaviour. We don't have any examples of a fatal accident involving the first kind of error, and this case is an example of the second kind.

> "something is moving closer to the car in a way we're not expecting" would be a great thing to show the safety driver.

Isn't that what you get by looking through the windshield using your eyeballs?

[perl4ever]

"In the second case, the driver was knowingly not doing their job, and was knowingly engaging in unsafe behaviour."

Maybe, but the bigger picture is if you hire people for low wages and give them impossible tasks, you're not paying enough for them to make a good attempt or be a scapegoat. The problem is management.