"The rest of the country" also includes places with extreme weather (mostly snow and ice) and unpaved rural and forest service roads. In 3-5 years I see self driving cars being able to handle maybe 10-20 percent of the roads most of the time, and probably having huge blackout sections of the country for months of the year.
I live down a dirt forest service road that’s off a 2-lane 45mph paved road that gains 3000 vertical feet in 16 miles.
Yesterday it was snowing and there were 4 accidents during the evening commute. 2 were rollovers- SUVs taking a turn too fast for the conditions. 1 hit an elk- driver not paying adequate attention to the side of the road. 1 spun out and hit the ditch.
I think most of these accidents were easily avoidable with currently available technology. Simply driving slower and more cautiously would’ve prevented 3 of the 4 accidents yesterday.
