I was recently a passenger in a car with autopilot enabled, and for those who don’t know me, I don’t like this growing trend in cars. Call me paranoid, but the idea of putting your life in the hands of an inanimate object as it rapidly navigates busy and unpredictable roads all by itself sounds like a death-trap. Before you say it, I don’t care if the driver can take control at any time. If you ask me, the driver should be in control all of the time.
As we — or rather the car — drove over the Mission Bridge, I felt as if some manners had been missed. I then realized that I would have appreciated it if the driver had asked us passengers first before switching on autopilot. Who knows, as much as I dislike the feature, the people-pleaser in me might have said yes anyway.
Maybe I’m overreacting, or maybe asking beforehand is just common courtesy. All I know is that you’ll never catch me in the driver’s seat of a car driving itself.
