Highway Hypnosis
How you can drive twenty miles without remembering any of it
Highway hypnosis is the experience of driving for stretches without any memory of doing so, despite having stayed in your lane and obeyed signals. It's a striking example of automatic processing, your brain's ability to execute well-practiced routines without conscious attention. The basal ganglia and cerebellum handle the motor output while the prefrontal cortex, freed from monitoring duty, wanders into other thoughts.
You walk the same route to the coffee shop and arrive without remembering whether you crossed the street. You run through your morning routine, brushing teeth, making coffee, packing a bag, and couldn't tell a friend the order you did any of it in. Any task routine enough for autopilot gets handed off while your attention goes elsewhere. This is why most crashes happen on familiar routes, not unfamiliar ones. The road you've driven a thousand times is the one your brain has decided requires no supervision.
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Highway Hypnosis