I often wonder if all these projections about self driving, VR, and before that, 3D printing, are essentially wish fulfillment for and from a biased audience. I'd want to say that self driving cars are just around the corner, because that's the future I want to live in.

In that case, I wonder what it says about our present reality. The need to make such gloriously optimistic projections about self driving cars essentially indicates that driving isn't fun to a lot of people (ergo, car makers are making boring cars), or that commuting is too unpleasant (ergo, city planners have been slacking)