[qq66]

A self-driving car does not need to be able to handle every situation to still be useful. For example, if I had a self driving car that occasionally stopped and said "Please get in the drivers' seat, human driver required," it would still be a huge improvement over a normal car. And in the taxi fleet scenario, the cars could use alternate routes, or refuse a pickup in a place it can't get to and drop off as close as it can get.

[kasparsklavins]

By the time you are in the drivers seat, it will already be too late. A vehicle can't just stop and do nothing. A bad decision may be better than no decision at all.

[tiglionabbit]

It can in the scenarios listed above. If it sees the traffic lights blinking because a human is doing traffic control there, the car could safely stop and require a human to take over. If you're waiting behind someone who has stopped in the middle of the road to load or unload passengers, it's safe to just wait, or allow a human driver to figure out going around them.

[inimino]

That's not a self-driving car. A sometimes self-driving car is going to get people killed.

[qq66]

It has to be able to handle every situation safely, but doesn't need to be able to continue operating in every situation. If unexpected construction blocks the road, it needs to be able to stop and pull over, it can't go haywire and just accelerate right into a bulldozer. But it doesn't need to be able to navigate every situation. For example, a self-driving car which couldn't self-drive at night would still be hugely useful to me, I'd pay double for that feature.