[manicdee]

I am not allowed to take control of the plane I am flying in today. It is actually illegal to do so and I face severe penalties for even trying.

Same deal for taxis, busses, trams, cable-cars, ferris wheels and ferries.

We have modes of transport we do not control, where attempting to take control is illegal.

Why not the same for cars? They will simply be self-driving taxis after all.

[phkn1]

Because you don't own any of those things. If you own your own plane and have a pilot's license, you are more than welcome to fly it yourself and to disengage the autopilot should the situation demand it.

I wouldn't mind an autonomous car-share service. Just saying that Musk's futurist vision of mandatory self-driving vehicles is incompatible with personal control of personal technology, and practically, politically infeasible in the US anytime soon.