[QUOTE 5067623, member: 9609"]I think it would aid concentration which would be a good thing for safety - being little more than a steering wheel attendant is not enough to fully engage with the task in hand and is likely the cause of some drivers drifting off into their own little dream worlds or playing with their mobile phones.[/QUOTE]
A lot of really useless drivers take their driving test in an automatic not for any genuine medical reason. but because they simply lack the hand/eye co-ordination to be able to steer a vehicle, control it's speed, change gear, and observe what is going on around them - all at the same time. User9609 is absolutely right - modern cars are dead easy to drive really badly and fast with virtually no effort or road awareness. That encourages people to let their attention drift away from their driving and do dumb things like texting, updating their facebook, reading papers, staring at the laptop they've got open on the passenger seat etc. Driving old vehicles with no idiot-proof features means you have to be really sharp, really on the ball, and concentrating on what you are doing. You have got too many things to co-ordinate to be able to let your attention wander. I drive enough miles to regularly witness the aftermath of high speed motorway shunts where the impact damage is so severe it's obvious the following driver didn't even notice that the vehicle in front had braked and they slammed full-tilt into the back of it. You can easily drive a modern automatic car at 100+ mph with your shoes off just in your socks and with only one finger on the steering wheel. What you can't do is change the laws of physics.
