"Autonomous" Cars - here now?
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I find myself making a lot of trips to Mandurah. So that's basically an hour sitting in the right-hand lane of the freeway. Longer in traffic.
Amongst other things, I have been batting around the idea of purchasing a Mondeo. I understand the latter models have "Lane Keeping Assist", "Adaptive Cruise Control," and some form of "automatic braking." Plus such features are also available on other cars.
So my question(s) is what extent these can actually create an autonomous driving experience??
ie if I am happy to sit in the right hand lane of the freeway, and travel at the prevailing speed. Could I hypothetically close my eyes and have a snooze and let the car take care of the driving?
More realistically, I find the drive very stressful, the constant concentration, and watching out for the proliferate morons. Would these features allow me to relax? In either case, the real question is whether they are close to 100% failsafe? (IMHO having to constantly monitor the system in case it fails or disengages doesn't reduce the stress. Plus I don't actually want to be unsafe.)
Also, what are the differences between systems? I've read that some will disengage if you nudge the steering wheel, whereas others rely on the indicator. Also that some will only work on relatively straight roads, which seems rather pointless and dangerous.
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