There are actually cars being built now which will auto-brake in cruise control when you're behind a car going slower so you match their speed, and auto-breaking in emergencies when a collision is detected.  Along with trying to nudge you away from leaving your current lane when you haven't signaled, the cars of the future are actually giving you less to do (though I don't think they would ever completely remove the manual control, but that's because it can be life or death).<p>Don Normal talks about this in his book "The Design of Future Things": <a href="http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/the_design_of_future_1.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/the_design_of_future_1.html</a>