Granted it's not 100% an indicator, but don't you agree that it takes time to put your hands upon the wheel to grab if something does come out of left field at you and your passengers and the extra seconds to make that transfer to the wheel to take over could be crucial to the outcome of avoiding or being in an accident? I say this because I had a co-worker who was on cruise control back in the 80s on a busy highway in Chicago. She suffered a sudden blowout (with both hands on the wheel) and said the car jerked very hard to the side. The cruise control kept the car engaged at that speed until she could react and brake which she was trying to do while fighting the wheel. Touch the brake and AP's off and you're on your own.
I still see at this point in time that some type of steering wheel alerts is a good thing. I can only imagine what threads we'll have when the facial monitoring system goes in place and the system beeps at you.
100k+ nag-free hands-off miles of experience using AP say no, I do not agree at all. I've had plenty of emergency actions taken in those miles. Animals running into the road, children running into the road, trucks kicking up debris requiring instant action, truck blowouts directly ahead, idiot drivers of all kinds doing stupid things, two flat tires at speed (including a front tire blowout at 75 MPH), countless pothole avoidance maneuvers, and god knows how many other emergency actions that required instant responses that I easily avoided despite my hands being on my lap. Sorry, I'm paying attention to the road, and the time it takes for my hands to snap from my lap to the wheel to react to something is negligible, especially considering the action itself is going to be part of that movement. So the actual reaction time is the same, and the only delay caused by hands-not-on-the-wheel is the travel times of my hands to the wheel... which is likely in the low tens-of-milliseconds... if that.
At no point did my hands being in my lap vs resting on the wheel change the outcome of any scenario. If you're paying attention, this is a negligible difference in the total response time to an incident. I'd say it's virtually non-existent.
Overall, it's complete BS. It doesn't improve anything at all. I'd *love* for Tesla to release data proving otherwise... but that data definitely doesn't exist because the timed nags were a knee jerk "we have to do something to shut people up" reaction, not a thought out thing.
Edit: A note about the 80s incident you mentioned. This particular situation wouldn't happen with the EPAS system in a modern vehicle, especially in a Tesla with autopilot engaged. The system is pretty much holding the wheels where commanded, and can tell the difference between driver input and force applied at the wheels (from something like a blowout).
Ok, I am the last to defend Tesla on the crap they pull, and I absolutely agree they should not be forcing updates, BUT, your car being disabled because of an update, in court it would probably play out no different than your car breaking down. How is you have to go somewhere and your car is updating different than you have to go somewhere and your car won't start because the EMMC on the MCU failed due to too many logs, or simply your charge port won't let go of the charger, or the car won't start because something else broke down. Liability from Tesla would be the same for all such situations, which is limited to repairing the car in a reasonable time if the car is under warranty. Yes, you can think of some really expensive scenarios (I was going to play the lottery, I had the numbers all filled out, my Tesla was updating and I didn't make it but it turns out I would have won $800M - pay up Elon!) but it will all go back to the warranty - all car manufacturers warranty says they will fix when the car breaks down, they do not guarantee that the car will not break down.
Tesla making my car non-functional for a set period of time intentionally without my knowledge is a LOT different than the car just "breaking down"... this is a pretty flimsy argument.
A better analogy would be something like this: You own a vehicle from manufacturer X. Perfectly working. In the middle of the night, the manufacturer goes to your vehicle and starts removing and replacing components without your permission. While they're doing this, the car is not usable. You go to use the car... and can not, through no fault of your own and because of no mechanical defect of breakdown. I'm pretty sure manufacturer X is the liable party for any damages resulting from my inability to use my vehicle in this case.
The analogy above is pretty much exactly what Tesla is doing if they force an update without warning or consent. The car is perfectly fine, and without your knowledge they make it not usable for some period of time. No breakdown. That's just ridiculous to try and equate this to.