[ghaff]

That's almost certainly the case.

However, as soon as you've said that, you now have a requirement that:

- There be a sober, competent, licensed driver in the vehicle

- There needs to be a reliable non-instantaneous handoff from the vehicle to the snoozing driver

- The driver is probably still ultimately responsible for actions taken by the vehicle

Don't get me wrong. I'll take a reliable highway autopilot system. But this does largely rule out many of the use cases that people are thinking about when they say self-driving car.

[adrianN]

Those use cases can come after the technology has proven itself reliable. You don't have to have the perfect solution with the first production car.