Driver assisted highway has been around for years... Level 5 driving requires no human attention. Huge difference.
I think what is wanted by many is level 5 on the highways. I want to sleep, watch a movie, whatever. That is much, much "better" than what we have now. Like many others, I would be most interested in full level 5 on highways and me driving in the city. That is also much easier to implement and test. The scope of the problem is greatly reduced. I think Tesla and others are wasting tremendous resources trying to get the in-city stuff working. It makes cool videos, but being able to do other activities during a 5 hour highway drive has much more value (to me at least) than riding inside a high risk video game on the way to work.
(edit) I get that I am misusing the definition of "level 5" a bit, but I think my meaning is clear. Rated for no human attention for the long highway portion of a trip.
as you say, i don’t think this is entirely out of reach (even if it required specialized highway infrastructure or car to car communication). seems like lower hanging fruit than trying to get full self driving working on local/city roads.
i would pay a ton for the highway only capability…