Automakers Must Deliver on the Promise of Self-Driving Car Technology

>As the industry matures, the primary obstacles to wide adoption of these vehicles are regulatory and political.

The primary obstacle is technological, there really hasn't been much in the way of strong political/regulatory resistance. At a recent talk, when queried as to whether upcoming mass transit projects should be shit-canned in lieu of the imminent arrival of robotaxis, Waymo CEO John Krafcik cautioned listeners to not get too excited, widespread availability is still a decade or more away.

I fully support designing robotaxis that can accomodate the wheelchair bound among those with other disabilities, but give the companies a chance to get to a functioning business model for the dominant use case first. Henry Claypool, and myself, a resident of a northern city with harsh winters will have to rely on human driven taxis for the forseeable future.