if you drive down a straight road in a quiet town at constant speed and don't have to shift, I don't think the cognitive load is much bigger than driving around

if you drive down a straight road in a quiet town at constant speed and don't have to shift, I don't think the cognitive load is much bigger than driving around in GTA. After all, you are basically just scanning the environment in front of you for obstacles. It also seems to go both ways: when I returned to playing GTA after a few months, I was driving much more carefully in the game.