"American's love affair with the automatic transmission" I don't buy this as a contributing factor at all -- when you drive a manual transmission car regularly

"American's love affair with the automatic transmission" I don't buy this as a contributing factor at all -- when you drive a manual transmission car regularly, the shifting becomes second nature and you don't need to actively think about it -- I can zone out in my manual transmission car just as much as when I drive the no-transmission EV. In Japan, cars are almost all entirely automatic transmission cars, but their accident rate is less than 30% compared to the USA. This is one of the primary reasons I think robot cars will go absolutely nowhere. It is impossible to come up with a theory of mind for a robotic car. It's not impossible for the autonomous car to tell you that it sees you -- it could aim a "I see you" light at you, or maybe pop up an indicator on your smart watch or Google Glass to say that it sees you. It's not like catching a driver's eye is 100% reliable -- I've had drivers look right at me while they pull out in front of my bike at an intersection.