'Grappling' A generous word. Joe Schmo isn't included in the decision making for things like this. The insurance companies will DEMAND automated vehicles, Joe Schmo, Jane Q. Public be damned. Once trucking becomes automated the consumer market will follow quickly, again, because money.
Six of one, half dozen of the other. The actual mechanism by which it happens isn't all that important to me. The pressure comes from the insurance companies and winds up at the manufacturers by roundabout path of consumer behavior. I'm thinking in the scale of centuries today anyway, 'A ways off' is basically tomorrow given how I'm currently relating to the clock.I think they'll offer rebates for autonomous vehicles as soon as their calcs demonstrate that it saves them money.