ExtremeTech has an interesting article about driver inattention while using Tesla autopilot. Here are the opening paragraphs:
US safety officials are asking Tesla to pump the brakes on its full self-driving (FSD) feature, which the company plans on releasing to a wider range of drivers in a matter of days. They have good reason to worry. According to a new MIT study, drivers become “inattentive” while engaging Tesla’s FSD feature. It’s the latest in research that confirms what we all basically already knew.
Researchers analyzed glance data from 290 human FSD disengagement epochs to determine whether drivers using the capability focus their gaze less on the road and more on, well, anything else. They found that off-road glances lasted longer when drivers had FSD engaged and that non-driving related glimpses downward and toward the center stack area made up a majority of total glances. These were also the longest-lasting glances; 22 percent of them exceeded two seconds. This may not sound like much, but when you’re flying down the freeway, every fraction of a second counts.
