Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't want autopilot so I can actually sleep at the wheel, I want it in case I do. You should never get behind the wheel if there's a chance you'll fall asleep! You shouldn't be driving. Period. This is incredibly dangerous and puts innocent people at risk. No technology should compensate for this. We don't design technology to help drivers under the influence feel better about their driving. Please don't get beh…
> You shouldn't be driving. Period. what a stunningly pretentious and ignorant thing to say. reasons to be tired and drive: rotating shiftwork, working multiple jobs, caring for a newborn, caring for the sick. that covers millions of people, off the top of my head, without doing any research. and those are only the most black-and-white examples. more ambiguous cases include: driving from physical activity like OP men…
It is not, and just to be absolutely clear, none of the scenarios you mentioned justifies doing it either.
Driving while tired is comparable in effect to driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs or while distracted by devices such as phones. It can easily cause sufficient delay in reaction or error in judgement to lead to a serious accident that was entirely avoidable.
Driving while tired enough to actually fall asleep is a matter of life and death. Unless you are literally doing so in order to avoid an imminent and even greater likelihood of death -- and if you are, then I humbly suggest that it is extremely unlikely that you are truly in danger of falling asleep at the wheel yourself anyway -- you are risking the lives of everyone around you, as well as your own, and you should be treated accordingly in the eyes of the law for their benefit as well as your own. In my country, that would potentially mean multiple years in jail, a driving ban and being forced to take an extended test to demonstrate your competence again before being allowed back behind the wheel. And that's if you were lucky and got pulled over before you caused an actual accident.