I gotta disagree here. Our goal of we want cars to be around should be to replace ALL human drivers. Especially on highways. Cars can communicate with other cars, which would almost completely remove congestion and traffic from people who’ve never heard of zipper merging and people who refuse to let anyone in front of them ever because they need to save that three seconds.
People drive like assholes. Road rage incidents are not infrequent. People speed, drive drunk, cut people off, forget their exit and do incredibly stupid and dangerous things to get back instead of getting off on the next one, and overall should not be trusted piloting a 2,000 pound missile around other folks.
If every car was self driving, then safety on the road would skyrocket. Travel time would drop drastically. There would be no downsides (other than it won’t solve the US’s car-centric design). Am I saying we are ready? No.
I’m saying “they need to aid the driver and not replace them” is way off base. Idk what your commute is like, but I’d feel a million times safer if asshole A didnt drive around blaring his horn and brake checking me because I’m only going ten mph over the speed limit and not the 20 everyone else is, while asshole B is riding my ass trying to get me to speed up, leaving me 0 space to brake in an emergency.