You can take your hands off of it for short periods of time, but it quickly starts whining to tell you to keep your hands on the wheel, and if you don't the sys

You can take your hands off of it for short periods of time, but it quickly starts whining to tell you to keep your hands on the wheel, and if you don't the system disengages. It's usually ok to just nudge the wheel a bit to let it know you're still there. Note that this is for obvious liability reasons, not technical reasons.