I've caught myself doing the same on occasion. I try not to do it anymore. If I may, I'd suggest to replace "zoning out" with "applying my freed mental bandwidt

I've caught myself doing the same on occasion. I try not to do it anymore. If I may, I'd suggest to replace "zoning out" with "applying my freed mental bandwidth to monitor things that I would otherwise not have been able to pay attention to otherwise". IMO, driving aids should be used as emergency backstops and possibly a method of optimizing available attention. They are best avoided as an excuse to reduce overall attentiveness. For example, when ACC is on I can more reliably look a little farther ahead in traffic to preemptively react to developing risks, because I'm not micromanaging the throttle.