I disagree with you. The problem of autonomous vehicles is yes, a very difficult one, but steps are being taken towards it at a rapid rate. I work in the area, and parking and standard autonomous motorway driving, where the main required algorithms are lane departure, vehicle detection and adaptive cruise control are pretty much considered 'solved' in the research community.

I absolutely agree that there are plenty of aspects that are not solved, and possibly this is my passion for the domain shining through, but I would be much more optimistic for the future, and the near future at that.