To be clear (late posting, sorry) I believe that even if you have your hands on the wheel when the car is driving by itself it is more exhausting and dangerous than just driving the car yourself.

Are Google's / Waymo's vehicles not steering-wheel and pedal free? E.g., go to Waymo's own site here[1], scroll to "2015 World’s first fully self-driving ride on public roads", and watch the video: they give, if I'm not mistaken, a blind man a ride in a steering-wheel-free, pedals-free autonomous vehicle on public roads, in Texas. Now, granted, the original article is about the CA DMV, but I've seen vehicles that are indistinguishable from the prototype car in the video driving in Mountain View. Unless there's a model with steering wheels and pedals (it is hard to say from the outside), that would seem to imply that Google is testing fully autonomous cars in California. (Note that I'm not trying to imply that this is illegal: I'm not well-versed enough in the DMV's rules around autonomous vehicles to know if it requires "being ready to take the helm at any time" or not. I also did not realize, until Waymo's announcement recently, that they were so far along.)

[1]: https://waymo.com/journey/

even though those cars are steering wheel and pedal free, a google employee is riding inside, with a laptop attached, and a big red stop button. Here's an image:

http://www.mycoolbin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Googles-...

What happens after they hit the big red button and the car stops in the middle of the street? Do they wait for a tow truck? Or do they rely on restarting the self-driving mode after the danger has passed?

"The prototype vehicles in particular are equipped with removable steering wheels, accelerator pedals and brake pedals that allow test drivers to take over driving if desired." [1]

[1] https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0RESYe...