So in answer to your question, we already have the physical and legal infrastructure to support general-purpose automated cars, and we have the technological capacity.
That is such a stretch from the four sentences before it. You are discussing 1) a prototype vehicle that is not available to consumers and requires supervision by a cadre of engineers and 2) a recent law in just one of the least populous states of the country. How about a few choice details from that article you cited:
"... with only occasional human intervention."
"Before sending the self-driving car on a road test, Google engineers [have to] drive along the route one or more times to gather data about the environment."
"...there are many challenges ahead, including improving the reliability of the cars and addressing daunting legal and liability issues."
You must have read it with unrestrained optimism. I also applaud your idealistic notion that statistics matter more than public opinion, but the country isn't run by scientists and mathematicians (that's actually a good thing in certain respects). The reality is the general public does have to support changes that affect society, like laws and the development of physical and legal infrastructure, and there are many ways of formulating reasonable policy arguments with or without statistics.
That is such a stretch from the four sentences before it. You are discussing 1) a prototype vehicle that is not available to consumers and requires supervision by a cadre of engineers and 2) a recent law in just one of the least populous states of the country. How about a few choice details from that article you cited:
"... with only occasional human intervention."
"Before sending the self-driving car on a road test, Google engineers [have to] drive along the route one or more times to gather data about the environment."
"...there are many challenges ahead, including improving the reliability of the cars and addressing daunting legal and liability issues."
You must have read it with unrestrained optimism. I also applaud your idealistic notion that statistics matter more than public opinion, but the country isn't run by scientists and mathematicians (that's actually a good thing in certain respects). The reality is the general public does have to support changes that affect society, like laws and the development of physical and legal infrastructure, and there are many ways of formulating reasonable policy arguments with or without statistics.