I have a car with lanekeeping and distance-keeping (Mercedes) and it is extremely nice for long distances on U.S. interstates. After many hours of driving, I feel much less fatigued, and more able to keep up "command" tasks like looking ahead and scanning mirrors, compared to no lane assist. I can't recall a single time when it made a dangerous move, either; it's been extremely good at following lane markings even in difficult conditions like driving into the sun, with patchy concrete. I've been really impressed.

I have a Volvo and I can confirm this exact experience. After an 8 hour drive I feel totally fine.

I’ll add it makes the drive much safer, on occasion it’s slammed the brakes before I can react. Both of us together is much better than just one of us.

Same. Did a 12 hour drive across Europe in a Volvo XC60 with the PilotAssist system and I felt fine. In my previous cars I know I'd be absolutely shattered - in the Volvo with this system the mental load was massively reduced.

I have generally the same feeling in the Tesla. It's not full self driving by any means but it's nice. The only thing is a lot of other drivers on the road are not so good at staying in their lane and the Tesla will generally not react at all unless the violation is egregious, instead plowing forward at full speed down dead center of the lane. Often the result is just fine, it asserts your dominance and snaps the other driver back into their lane. But it's not how I drive and it's nerve rattling at times.

I had a full kitted rental with level 2 systems and it was the same for me. After a long day at a client I drove three hours to get home and I got there almost more rested than I started

Also rental for 2 weeks of a petrol ionic. Just feel less tired when the car keep the distance and lane. A bit nervous when the car turned for you. But by and large ok.

> because my foot is basically in the same position with or without it.

Do you think that's true in general? I've never left my foot hovering over the pedals, back to when cruise control first became popular. I rest my foot fully on the floor, which is much more comfortable, but requires that I move my foot to apply either the brake or the accelerator.

I didn't mean to imply it's hovering. I'll usually have it close by on the floor. But it's where it would be even if the car were not running.

That's confusing.

It'd be nice if there was a thing to lean your foot on near the brake pedal.

This is a thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_pedal

The muscle memory for braking is all it matters, if you used to food on floor it works well enough, but to me if I don't have the foot on the gas pedal I take longer to find the brake pedal

> Cruise control on the other hand seems fine, because my foot is basically in the same position with or without it. The automation just saves me from having to modulate the thing with my foot, and it's not making changes that have very fast, significant consequences.

Maybe I am just living in the past with my 2007 Toyota Camry but cars have come a long way in just fifteen years. Just look at adaptive cruise control or lane assist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smf1uop7HoY

Maybe I am just in awe because I don't own a new car and don't feel the pain of things like replacing a broken windshield (holy smokes these new things are expensive to calibrate) but it is nice when these things work. However, when I drive someone else's new car I can totally see myself going fora new car if I could somehow justify it financially.

>because I don't own a new car and don't feel the pain of things like replacing a broken windshield

I’m having my Land Rovers windshield (with heated filaments and collision avoidance) replaced in a week. It’s a $50 deductible and they said a $50 calibration charge, but that wasn’t on the final bill. Given that these windshields are $500-$1500, I’m pretty happy with the cost.

My insurance company replaced a broken windshield on my Volvo, and per policy the glass company used some cheap third-party garbage. The adaptive cruise control and lane assist kept erroring out. After three separate attempts to calibrate it, eventually the dealership said that the third party glass was distorting the image that the cameras were capturing so much that it was impossible to calibrate correctly. We had to get the windshield replaced again using the OEM part, and the glass company is trying to force us to pay the deductible again.

Just a word of warning about how this can go.

I’ve read a bit about that. I almost spent the time to get my insurance company to prefer OEM glass, but then I noticed that the 3rd party provider is actually the same manufacturer as my current OEM glass (Fuyao, if anyone is curious) not sure how it’ll all go.

That's weird. If strong distortion was the problem it should be very obvious and it should cause problems well beyond the camera.

Both of my Range Rovers need the windscreens replaced because the heating elements have failed. It's about a £75 excess, but it's kind of questionable whether it's worth it for a 25-year-old vehicle. You still need to scrape the ice off the side windows ;-)