Self driving vehicles, with current technology, are unrealistic outside major cities. Major cities are the places where you least need a personal car.
Google Maps still thinks the speed limit on a nearby highway is 35 mph. We spent several months without lane markers on the highway. Any vehicle driving around here based on the current self-driving architecture, requiring central mapping/planning and good infrastructure, would be ridiculously unsafe.
Not to mention how lost they would be the moment they turned off the highway.
> Self driving vehicles, with current technology, are unrealistic outside major cities
Why? My Subaru can practically drive itself on most Wyoming roads, including in whiteout conditions. It’s easier to drive with fewer cars around. It’s just not as profitable to field a fleet in suburban and rural America.
My Waymo ride went through a construction zone without trouble. I don’t know how much mapping it needs or how they keep it current but it’s not constrained to ideal conditions.
What about the places where people own cars not because it is the better choice, but the only choice?