[IanCal]

But voice recognition is something we take many years to learn, even when are brains are highly plastic. I find it hard to understand people when they speak often. We disambiguate heavily based on context and expectation, very complex issues.

[ghaff]

Oh, I fully agree. The fact that it's been the subject of so much research and remains only very incompletely solved demonstrates just how difficult a problem it is. I'm just saying that navigating a potentially dangerous machine through a physical world populated with erratic human beings is also very complex and difficult--albeit probably far less so in some contexts (limited access highways in good weather) than others (Manhattan, Boston).