well actually all of us are not sentient most of the time when driving. that's psychology. have you never been driving the same old road and then something unexpected happens and it's like you wake up out of a coma? it's scary but our brains fall into autopilot mode a lot of the time when we're driving, it's not the conscious part of our mind driving a lot of the time, rather the subconscious part. that's why you have to know rules and hammer them in by repetition and can't just freestyle. you should try to be aware of what you're doing and be observant, but no matter how hard you try you're going to fail to do that most of the time.
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