[tialaramex]

Dickmann's car does Autobahn (~US freeway) traffic under controlled conditions. It doesn't need to understand junctions or traffic signals, there aren't any. It doesn't need to understand pedestrians, there aren't any. It doesn't need to understand bicycles, there aren't any. What happens if things go wrong? In practice a human takes the wheel, this is not a system capable of safely leaving traffic when it can't cope, so it was never demonstrated without what we'd today call a "safety driver". That's not autonomous self-driving cars minus a little bit more research, it's improved Cruise Control.

Waymo has taxi service. It's losing money doing that, and it's only in a few select places, but it's doing autonomous journeys, with no "safety driver" on city streets. It understands junctions, and traffic signals, pedestrians and cyclists, because on the city streets those things are commonplace. It's doing the hard part.

I don't think that constitutes "crawled marginally forward", it's a considerable advance.