Regenerative breaking is an amazing piece of tech. I really like electric cars that have it baked-in the "gas" pedal so that releasing it slows down the car without using the brakes. You can achieve "optimal" driving by always recouping the kinetic energy as electricity instead.of heat in your break pads.
Most of my EV driving is in single pedal mode. I absolutely love driving in this mode. I feel like I just have far more control over the vehicle by having a single pedal to directly control the speed instead of the vehicle just rolling when I get off the accelerator. Also, the fact the car just stays put when stopped instead of constantly rolling forward in drive is really nice.
Sometimes my car loads my wife's profile when I drive which changes it back to standard driving. It is jarring having the car just always want to roll forward. It just feels so much worse than single pedal driving.
I'm assuming the standard driving profile imitates an automatic transmission with a torque converter, which continually creeps forward if the brake isn't held down. As opposed to a manual or dual-clutch automatic transmission, which does not creep (except by gravity).
Is disabling this "creep" independently of braking with the gas pedal an option in any electric vehicles? I seem to remember that some cars with continuously variable transmissions had this as an option.
There is still often an "Auto Hold" feature that will engage the brake when the vehicle comes to a complete stop. My EV can have auto hold engaged while not being in the single pedal drive. I have this in my ICE as well, but it doesn't seem as smooth overall, so I don't end up using it much.
It is still not quite the same experience though, as the ICE will just keep rolling at low speeds forever without actually ever coming to a stop until you press the brake. Auto hold will only engage when the vehicle actually stops. For my EV, when I get off the accelerator pedal it'll come to a complete stop on its own and then hold itself there.
Other than turning on my EV, most trips don't involve me touching the brake pedal at all.