Originally Posted by
coominya
A self driving truck in an open cut mine is one thing, a car on suburban streets?
Nah; just give me the option on open rural interstate. For most of the distance, it could even be mostly mechanical; think of a guide rail like the "driving" rides at amusement parks, with some other form of guidance for the gaps needed to allow entry/exit. OBD monitors for mechanical issues and refuses to engage the self-drive (for use of the rail equipped priority lane) if a serious problem exists that might prevent continued safe operation for the next segment. (Thus preventing the problem of a stopped car on the rail.) Where exits are 1-4 miles apart, there's just not much "driving" to be done.
In traffic jams, lane holding and keeping a set distance from the car ahead isn't exactly rocket surgery. Remote transmitters could even set up an orderly automated migration to the clear lanes when some are blocked ahead. When the jam starts to clear, you could have an audible alert, letting the driver know to take over again, or else the car pulls over and stops rather than continuing to self-drive in the dense-but-accelerating traffic right past a jam.