Re: Speculation
"you can just sit there and watch out for hazards on the road without being preoccupied with the monotonous routine mechanical driving actions."
I suspect that in practice that would cause the driver to be less attentive.
The "monotonous routine mechanical driving actions" are pretty much automatic for most drivers but do serve to keep you attentive on what you are doing.
I had a hire car a while ago which had lane assist. A mid range korean brand car. The lane assist just beeped on getting near a lane marker or buzzed if crossed, with a dash display to tell you which lane marker it was (left or right). I'm not sure of the utility of the display since it didn't have any control over the steering so the driver really ought to be looking outside rather than at the dash to see which way they'd just wandered. The drivers manual had a list of about a page and half listing the circumstances where the lane assist might not work fully or at all.
I'm not sure adapting cruise control to assist in steering is a good idea without going for a full autonomous system. I can easily imagine some drivers treating it as a full AI at the wrong times and causing mayhem. Even if it's something as "simple" as the car suddenly braking while in super cruise control mode due to the driver doing a crossword and not seeing the truck pulling out in front.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
