I've been saying that autonomous cars are further away than some of the visionaries promised, and that reality has arrived.
The "last mile" of reliable autonomy is exponentially harder... VERY exponentially.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-a...-idUSKBN1W81AE
Actually I think you might first see autonomy is eVOTL/UAM... the operating environment is less complex than for surface vehicles, weather avoidance is just a go/no-go decision before you leave, and unlike an airliner you can just pull over and stop almost anywhere (unless you take a waterfowl through your eFan but that's another issue). The eVOTL folks wanted a reduced safety standard of 10(-8), but the Europeans are holding them to 10(-9) so that will drive the development process regardless of what the FAA does. Unlikely they'll design US-only eVOTLs to a lower standard than Europe... that would be hard to explain to a jury hearing a lawsuit.