>> Self-driving cars in an uncooperative environment is probably an order of magnitude harder than that. Demanding that they work in an uncooperative environment results in a problem that is probably intractably hard.

That's why I'm skeptical of self-driving cars becoming widespread in the U.S. in the next decade. Driving in an unknown environment over millions of miles of roads is going to be a huge challenge if the infrastructure doesn't change, but I can't figure out which political party is going to support the massive infrastructure project. The early adopters of this technology are probably going to be transportation companies. Democrats are going to have a hard time advocating for spending money that throws truck and taxi drivers out of work. And good luck getting Republicans to spend additional money on anything.

I hope that google and/or the car companies pull it off, but I don't think that we should hold our breath waiting for the world to adjust to self-driving cars. The hardware and software will have to do 99% of the work.