God is out of a job as co-pilot...
Mechanical Engineers Develop an 'Intelligent Co-Pilot' for CarsScienceDaily (July 13, 2012) — Barrels and cones dot an open field in Saline, Mich., forming an obstacle course for a modified vehicle. A driver remotely steers the vehicle through the course from a nearby location as a researcher looks on. Occasionally, the researcher instructs the driver to keep the wheel straight -- a trajectory that appears to put the vehicle on a collision course with a barrel. Despite the driver's actions, the vehicle steers itself around the obstacle, transitioning control back to the driver once the danger has passed.
The key to the maneuver is a new semiautonomous safety system developed by Sterling Anderson, a PhD student in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Karl Iagnemma, a principal research scientist in MIT's Robotic Mobility Group.
The system uses an onboard camera and laser rangefinder to identify hazards in a vehicle's environment. The team devised an algorithm to analyze the data and identify safe zones -- avoiding, for example, barrels in a field, or other cars on a roadway. The system allows a driver to control the vehicle, only taking the wheel when the driver is about to exit a safe zone.
Anderson, who has been testing the system in Michigan since last September, describes it as an "intelligent co-pilot" that monitors a driver's performance and makes behind-the-scenes adjustments to keep the vehicle from colliding with obstacles, or within a safe region of the environment, such as a lane or open area.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120713140158.htm
= new reply since forum marked as read
They crashed on a mountainside and somebody ate him? 
You make it a law that the only motor vehicles manufacturers can sell in the U.S. are ones with manual transmissions. You won't be able to just slam it into DRIVE and then go, while texting/talking on the phone/putting on your make up, etc., you really HAVE to pay attention and drive or the car will not go.
What.. too extreme? No, I really think it would make the roads safer for everyone. And yes, I and all of my family members already do drive cars with manual transmissions.
I know most people probably don't even know where that is on their car, because even with automatic transmissions, they still don't use them.
When you come to a stop on an incline, put on the handbrake. My car still rolls back a little if I don't use the handbrake, and it's an automatic.
When you're ready to go, let up on the foot brake a little (or let up on the clutch a little while in 1st gear) until the rear of the car goes down a little. Take off the handbrake and let up on the foot brake (or, take off the handbrake and let up on the clutch completely) and you'll never roll back
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Of course, I don't think making all cars manual transmission would be a solution to this problem. Education is the best solution, including getting kids (and adults) onto things like a test track and a "slick" track, and putting them into emergency situations where they have to pay attention or wreck their vehicle.
Also, some car designs don't work with manual transmissions. Hybrid cars, for example, and electric cars for another.
Everyone who texts while driving are driving cars with automatic transmissions..........
