Current language models (misnomered as “AI”) are great at some things but fail at any real thinking.
Self-Driving works decently in predictable environments but anything outside of those limits can make it literally crash and burn.
Public road transportation by individuals just has too many cases where real decision-making is required.
Despite all their resources, I think they’ve given up. All the brilliant engineers and scientists have given up, because they know what we’ve suspected for a long time.
Self driving cars have to be the most roundabout way to avoid railways that I can think of. It’s a stupid invention developed by greedy car brained idiots whose efforts are totally outmatched by any modern train system in any developed country.
I mean we should absolutely build more railways and we should absolutely have more bus routes, but there are times when a car makes the most sense.
Especially in more rural areas. If I want to visit my parents I can take a short walk to a bus or rail to a different bus or rail, but then I’m stuck. There isn’t and there will never be a bus or rail that goes anywhere near their home because it’s just too far in the middle of nowhere (and honestly it’s not really that far in the middle of nowhere).
Not to mention that the US was designed for cars. Arguably that’s where a lot of these problems started, but you can’t just be Captain Hindsight and demand we rebuild absolutely everything.
We should absolutely be investing and funding rails and buses much more than we are now. It’s embarrassing how far behind the US is.
Then there’s even less reason to invest in self driving right now if we’re aiming to minimize the amount cars
Edit: wording