My understanding of Adaptive Cruise Control

The most advanced one of these that I presently know of is the "Autopilot" in a Tesla.

The basic Idea appears to be not only does it "set" at a certain speed like regular Cruise control but it also goes with the flow of traffic and keeps your vehicle at a specific distance from other cars. So, while it is doing this you are free to not do anything but watch for dangerous situations that the Automatic Cruise control might miss.

The problem is I think most drivers are not trained to do this effectively. So, the likely drivers who would use this feature would be "risk takers" (the kind of people that also might ride motorcycles on a freeway in heavy traffic).

Or if they are not "risk takers" who psychologically prepare for this sort of thing so they are up to the challenge, then you have to expect some of them not to survive the challenge of doing something like this.

Because the risks of coming to harm are much much greater than using just regular "Cruise control" simply because you multiply the potential variables for harm by a factor of maybe 100 or more.

And if the watchful driver misses something then there might not be time to break out of Adaptive Cruise Control to be able to save lives (both inside and outside the vehicle).

So, I liken using Adaptive Cruise Control in Heavy traffic to riding a motorcycle in heavy traffic on a freeway. It's about the same risk of your life and others.

My thought is that the best time to use this feature would be far away from cities on boring roads that go on in a straight line forever. This likely might be the safest time to use something like this. But, even then you have to stay awake and be vigilant.

Actually, especially at night I think the biggest problem people are going to have with adaptive Cruise Control is just falling asleep while in Adaptive Cruise Control because they have nothing to do but watch for problems. And this also could be fatal.