Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,670
Picked up a 300C at DCA that had this feature, and I thought it was supremely bizarre.
I can see how it would be nice on a long highway trip, I suppose. I tried letting the car "drive itself" but then it got mad at me and told me to put my hands on the steering wheel (!) -- I guess it's okay with making small corrections but doesn't like being burdened with keeping the car in its lane through curves. Who knows.
I'm pretty good about signaling lane changes, but sometimes the self-drive thing would prematurely bounce me back into a lane when I was trying to get out of someone's way, and it seemed like it was doing that perhaps a split-second before I was about to signal my lane change anyhow (the signal, evidently, calls off the self-driving function).
I categorize this with features that should be made easy to disable, along with things like side-view mirrors that "rotate downwards" when you throw the car into reverse.