Everyone is driving fast enough so that they are just a little bit scared (that's when they stop accelerating even if their car has some speed left), which rivets their attention on the task at hand. The same might apply to the LA freeways in the good old days, except that the primary source of fear would have been the crowding rather than the speed. I haven't been able to spend more than 20 hours total on the Autobahns, but I never noticed any drivers pointing out cows or crops or barns to their passengers, as one sees all the time in the Great Plains states, where the interstates should be virtually accident free, given the visibility and room, if only people would focus on their primary task.