> The system does ping and then yell at you if you don't have your hand on the wheel. There's no way to prevent someone from keeping a hand on the wheel and watching a movie while driving.

Daimler actually shipped something intended to do this and beep/yell at you if it thought you were "distracted" or tired, but I honestly never knew what it was measuring. If you could point a camera at the driver it would be trivial, but people would definitely have an issue with that!

> It's really tragic what happened but as a driver you should be aware of what's happening. I've put ~15k miles of Autopilot on our Tesla and while it helps with the mental fatigue I was still watching the road 100% of the time exactly for reasons like this.

Yes, even just adaptive cruise control is a big help and wonderful in traffic. But the ACC I'm familiar with will turn off as soon as you let go of the wheel. I'm happy to hear that the features have worked well for you, and it's nice that the Tesla yells at you, but it just needs to turn off.

> Daimler actually shipped something intended to do this and beep/yell at you if it thought you were "distracted" or tired

https://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/technology/videos/detail/titl...

They measure your reaction time to sways and curves.

What I've heard is that it pings and complains, but not at such a frequency that drivers are compelled to keep their hands on the wheel.

There are two situations where it pings: 1) After a set amount of time (around 5 minutes or so). This is to ensure you are awake. 2) If it hits a turn or situation where it is less confident. 3) Major escalation in situations where a crash may be imminent (this ping is much louder and urgent).

Agree that on straightaways, the pings are pretty infrequent.

You can use Autopilot for five minutes without your hands on the wheel, and it won't even beep at you?

The "killer app" everyone is expecting is: get in, tap destination, and peruse media for the duration.

That will require a stage of using Autopilot for five minutes without your hands on the wheel, and it won't even beep at you.

Sure, but the unstated assumption there is that stage won't also force-feed you the side of a tractor trailer through your windshield.

Currently Tesla's cars act as though they've satisfied that assumption even though they haven't, and someone died over it. Tesla absolutely should not be acting like they've created a self-driving car with safety features that let you ignore the road when in fact they are driving assists and you still have to maintain awareness.

There are multiple paths to that destination, Google is taking one without the pit stop at 5 minutes.

It should give a visual and loud acoustic alarm after 5 seconds of taking your hands of the wheel or losing confidence.

The driver is compelled to keep their hands on the wheel by the relevant laws/regulations, not by the car, same as every other car manufactured in the last 100 years.