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Comment by mwint | Hacker News Reader

I’ve only driven a Tesla with Autopilot once, for ten minutes or so. By the end of it, I was struck by how much more time I was spending looking far ahead, or looking in the mirrors for longer. It felt like I switched to farther-field situational awareness once I was confident the car wouldn’t rear end the dude in front of me.

So if attentiveness is measured as “staring at the license plate in front of me”, my attentiveness went down. But I felt safer since I was looking hundreds of yards down the road for situations I might have to handle or avoid, at a longer timescale.

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Do people really stare at the license plate in front of them anyways, though? It was made quite clear during driver training courses many years ago not to do this and that your glance pattern should always start and return to near the horizon (whether that be hundreds of yards in a city, or miles away on a highway).

I've always had the opposite problem, if I'm not maintaining situational awareness to the horizon, I'll inevitably fall asleep after an hour or two out of sheer boredom. I prefer to drive long distances in manual-transmission vehicles (there's more to do!), and commercial vehicles with loads requiring careful management of engine RPM are even better. Those I can drive for 10-12 hours in a day without issue. I never saw myself as anything other than an ordinary driver.

In my case, a Tesla autopilot is the worst possible compromise. It removes enough attention requirements that it feels much harder to stay attentive, but without automating the process completely. Other people I've talked to that operate large pieces of mechanical equipment have often said similar things about automation that it's best to either be a) fully manual or b) fully automated for some duration of time.

This is how I feel as well (having driven many miles with a Comma), but I have no idea if I represent an average driver or if my perceived attentiveness matches what is really happening.

I do think that it is very easy for me to spend longer looking at a screen or button when the autopilot is driving for me, since there is no immediate penalty (lane line, rumble strips, etc) for looking away.

"I felt safer since I was looking hundreds of yards down the road for situations I might have to handle or avoid, at a longer timescale."

I was taught to do this while driving. It was a basic lesson in "Driver's Ed".

Making it a habit though is a different thing. For me that was easier because it was one of the things that pro racers mentioned they did as well.

That is certainly a key to avoiding accidents. Others would be always keeping a safe distance between you and the cars in front of you and what's going on behind and around you.

I made a habit when I first started driving to always stay focused on the task of driving. I almost never turn on the radio or play music. That's because I want to hear what's going on around me.

The best advice I ever got was from a California Highway Patrol officer who told me "Drive like everyone is trying to crash into you".

Where I live now almost everywhere I drive it's on curvy two lane mountain roads. Most have a 55mph limit with curve signs as low as 25mph. We also have deer by the thousands here, and they forage at night. You really have to pay attention to just to stay on the road and not hit deer.

There is no way I'd trust a Tesla to drive me around here (or anywhere for that matter).

> "Drive like everyone is trying to crash into you"

That advice (for cyclists) was also in one of Neal Stephenson's early novels, Zodiac... I've found it useful. Now I just get annoyed when drivers insist on yielding to pedestrians and cyclists when they don't need to, it would be faster if they didn't and they aren't blocking any other traffic. The driver feels like they've helped, I guess, but the pedestrians are not safer.

You don’t need autopilot for that though - I do the same in my car with basic traffic adaptive cruise control.

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