This is the advice people (with iOS) should follow, not disabling biometrics altogether. Using FaceID or TouchID prevents shoulder surfing to find out what the password to your phone is. When local passwords have so much control over a device, using biometrics to prevent anyone from seeing what your passcode is is very useful.
But it’s more likely in a car where the drivers may have been mislead into believing a myth that the car will drive itself safely without them.
I’d wager the driver knew full well that the car does not drive without them. While it is a very poorly and marketing influenced name (“Autopilot”); unless this was the drivers first time using it, and had only used it for 5 seconds before the accident they new perfectly well what the feature was.
You have to try to game the car for it to allow you to take your hands off the wheel. It’s pretty sensitive to movements and if your hands are off the wheel you get visible and audible alerts before the car disengages the cruise control / lane assistance.
This seems like a case of a reckless driver who killed someone and is attempting to push blame or form some excuse for their negligence. The driver not paying attention to the road is the danger here, no matter what car they’re driving.
It’s poorly named. A more accurate, less marketing influenced name would be “Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Assist” for the basic “Autopilot”.
I was curious, in case anybody else doesn’t know who Dirk Hohndel is:
Source 1 Source 2