Can self-driving cars make us worse drivers? Tesla owner's realization sparks debate
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A Tesla owner recently took to Reddit to confess a «terrifying truth» about their driving habits after relying on FSD «99 percent of the time.» The driver admitted that when they manually took control of their car, they felt a sense of vulnerability they had never experienced before.
«When I do disengage and drive manually, I am so much more aware of how limited my awareness actually is,» the driver wrote. «I feel a sense of vulnerability that I didn’t even realize existed before I became used to relying on this tech.»
This realization has sparked a major debate—are self-driving cars making us worse at driving?
A World Without Human Error?
The Tesla driver went on to argue that if every car on the road used FSD technology simultaneously, it would create «complete harmony» in traffic.
«No drunk driving, no tired driving, no distressed driving, no inexperienced driving,» they wrote. «It’s such a no-brainer.»
But not everyone is convinced that handing over control to AI is the safest move.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software, which first rolled out in 2020, has now logged over three billion miles in supervised mode. However, it's far from perfect—in 2023 alone, Tesla recalled 362,000 vehicles due to safety concerns, and the NHTSA recorded 60 crashes and one fatality involving FSD beta in just one year.
Are We Losing the Art of Driving?
The Reddit post ignited a fiery debate, with some Tesla drivers agreeing that the technology makes traffic more bearable and road trips easier.
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