Automotive engineer here. What the article and many posts here miss: one pedal driving is just another user interface mode to capture the driver’s intent. The system itself always recuperates energy instead of braking, if possible. If no intent to decelerate is given, sailing is more energy efficient than recuperating.
It sure beats three pedals though right? If you wanted to completely optimize you would introduce some kind of regen break pedal which allows you to stop using regen only and then switch to your backup break pedal when you have too short a stopping distance. Ux is pretty bad I imagine.
Some EVs use paddles behind the steering wheel to control recuperation. You can switch between several levels or use max regen while you hold one of the paddles. It gives a lot of control without touching the brake pedal.
I wouldn't want that kind of interface. I'd worry about it retraining my mind to think "Braking = pulling this paddle", and then one day I'll need to make an emergency stop, and I'll pull the paddle instead of hitting the foot brake and ram into whatever I wanted to avoid because the regen braking was insufficient.
I suppose the system could be designed to detect a user suddenly putting a death grip on the paddle brake and apply the foot brake automatically.
