Disclaimer: I work on the business side of the autonomous team at a major OEM. The autonomous car business model is very much alive and well, it has simply shi

Disclaimer: I work on the business side of the autonomous team at a major OEM. The autonomous car business model is very much alive and well, it has simply shifted in two key areas that cause general consumers to misinterpret what is happening. 1) Use cases (ODD). Many people think "if I can't buy an autonomous car, it's not a real thing". But most manufacturers and AV developers other than Tesla aren't even trying to tackle that use case. Instead, the focus is on autonomous vehicles operating very profitably in specific locations and operating models that work. Heavy trucking on "easy" routes, ridesharing in well-mapped areas of the Southwest US, shuttles on popular metro and airport routes, etc. These use cases represent very large revenue opportunities and the tech development is progressing well. 2) Timing. Too many pundits and CEOs looking to generate PR buzz made ridiculous claims over the last few years about when autonomous vehicles would be ready. This set false expectations among the general public which has now soured perceptions since autonomous tech is not easy. Fully driverless is already ready in some very specific scenarios (ex. Waymo in Chandler) and is on track to roll out to more ODDs over the next 5-7 years. I can pretty much guarantee that you will see a significant number of fully driverless vehicles in suitable areas by 2030. No, they won't drive in upstate New York in a blizzard, but no one actually cares about that from a business perspective. The other issues you raise - liability, insurance, legal roadblocks, etc. are mostly non-issues that already have solutions. The only one that's a continuing problem is the fragmented nature of legislation across different states. But there is very heavy lobbying going on right now to rectify this by the time it's actually needed.