The article argues that a shift to fully self-driving vehicles “will require massive amounts of philosophical, technological, and legislative effort and change.”
There’s an important distinction here. Traditional automakers are generally paddling in the shallow end of the autonomous pool, with the promise of features such as automatic braking. Tech companies such as Google are doing cannonballs from the high dive, reimagining the automobile for the digital age, removing the driver, steering wheel and pedals. That’s the type of autonomous driving the article is poo-pooing.
There are worthy questions about the nascent technology, including how will self-driving cars handle the busiest city streets and inclement weather? How serious are the hacking risks? What privacy will passengers give up?