I agree in part, but think it'll go further than you expect. I suspect manual driving will, in the next twenty years, require lots of additional training, licen

I agree in part, but think it'll go further than you expect. I suspect manual driving will, in the next twenty years, require lots of additional training, licensing, insurance, and certifications. And you'll have to prove special circumstances (farm use only, etc). As the technology gets there maps will catch up, and likely become more and more real-time. It seems impossible now, but I'll bet the next wave of mapping will marry a thick web of satellites and machine learning to essentially figure out what is a road, a dirt road, a road with construction, etc. And that will be fed to the cars in their respective areas. The present situation will seem quaint indeed. So even in rural areas, there will likely be auto cars everywhere by in the most remote of areas (similar to how in some places the snowmobile and ATV are more heavily utilized than cars simply because of environmental/geographical reasons). I also inside this sea change will heavily impact rural areas and many of them will either be transformed or erased. Think about what happened when the interstates were built. Many towns which had previously prospered on state highways and the like almost literally overnight just vanished...Or turned into just a gas station, diner, and bar for what few travelers remained.