In some ways, you describe freight rail. Freight rail in the United States is great. We use it a lot more than Europe (probably about 4x more) and the fuel efficiency gains are huge for freight rail. It isn't self-driving, but it is on dedicated tracks with minimal people needed given the long length that trains can be.

I think this is the reason why the industry doesn't seem to care: they do care, but they've already invested in freight rail which is even more efficient. It's going to be hard to beat freight rail's efficiency and at what cost? Trucking does have greater flexibility and is needed to do shorter distances and last-mile stuff, but we already have fuel-efficient trucks on their own truckways: it's freight rail.