Correct

Last summer I took my family on a driving holiday in the American south-western desert covering many national parks. While driving along some of the long tracts of razor-straight highways, such as between Las Vegas and St George, Utah, I often fought drowsiness, not because of lack of sleep, but from the sheer monotony. A familiar experience for many, no doubt. Hardly any conscious thought is needed during such drives. It must be one’s ‘System’, as per Kahneman, which is most certainly doing what ever work is needed. Nevertheless, sleep is not an option. In spite of all the marvellous features embedded in the modern car, the ability to drive itself is, sadly, still missing. The cruise control button helps a bit, allowing one’s feet torelax as the car’s speed remains on an even keel. But the eyes and mind must remain awake and alert. When, if ever, one wonders, will cars with a ‘drive’ button become as common as those with an automatic transmission? Is driving along a perfectly straight stretch of highway really that difficult? After all, we all know that a modern jetliner can fly on autopilot, allowing even a single pilot to read a novel while ‘flying’ the aircraft on a long transcontinental flight. In fact, the jetliner would fly itself perfectly even if the pilot dozed off for many minutes or even hours. We insist that at least one pilot be awake and alert only for our own peace of mind, so as to be able to adequately respond to any emergency situation that might arise. First of all, the ubiquitous autopilot is itself quite a complex piece of equipment. Even to get a plane to fly perfectly straight along a desired heading at a fixed altitude takes a lot of work. The reason, as you must have guessed, is that nature, in the guise of the air on which our jetliner rides, can be quite unpredictable. Wind speeds and directions change continuously, even ever so slightly, requiring constant adjustments to the plane’s engine power, ailerons, flaps, and rudder. In the absence of such adjustments, our jetliner would most certainly veer off course, or lose or gain speed, even dangerously enough to trigger a powered dive or a stall.