News broke that Chris Lattner, Tesla's vice president of Autopilot software, was leaving Wednesday night — its third Autopilot exec departure in the last seven months.
While not applying specifically to Tesla, one reason I know that it isn't going to work is that almost everyone involved is focused on the hardest application - self-driving taxis. Of course this technology will work to some degree and get a bit better over time. Fixed or semi-fixed route buses would be possible (I question whether they'll be the killer cost-saving "app" people imagine, but they'll work), along with other similar things. But the idea that you snap your fingers and a car appears to whisk you off anywhere is Jetsons stuff.