> Even with all the tech problems solved, the regulatory hurdles to implementing this are staggering. I think we will "back in" to self driving cars. I think

> Even with all the tech problems solved, the regulatory hurdles to implementing this are staggering. I think we will "back in" to self driving cars. I think they will first appear as safety features on luxury cars (this is already happening). The real statistics of these features will become obvious. Eventually the car won't let the driver do anything stupid and people will become annoyed that they have to hold on to the wheel when basically the car could be doing that for them. Earlier production models of self driving cars will work like cruise control. Perhaps the system analyzes the road conditions and in optimum environments it enables a button that engages autopilot with warnings when conditions degrade (eventually stopping the car if the driver does not resume control).