Not only is there strong evidence for exactly that (lack of empathy) to be the case, those who work with autistic people commonly observe it. Moreover, it's now

Not only is there strong evidence for exactly that (lack of empathy) to be the case, those who work with autistic people commonly observe it. Moreover, it's now recognized that it may be related to mirror neuron development issues: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/broken-mirrors-a-theory-of-autism-2007-06/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/broken-mirrors-a-... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15993757/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15993757/