I appreciate the general point that autonomous driving that only works under some conditions would be useful. But I think it's more along the lines of handling highway driving under most circumstances which already pre-supposes a licensed sober driver that can take over control with a minute or two notice.
I already have an option for local driving. It's called taxis/Uber/Lyft and robo versions won't be all that much cheaper.
In the given example "driving in a parking lot +rain" it's completely reasonable to pass the buck to the human driver. In your example "driving +rain" you can't because that situation occurs well more frequently.
People like me are only looking forward to completely autonomy -- I am forbidden to drive, you see.
And it gives me some perspective... I believe society would benefit enormously if it didn't treat "everyone can drive" as a truism. If you were to break down what the concept "drive" means in terms of simultaneous tasks a human most be capable of performing you would quickly see how utterly ridiculous it is -- with devastating results in how urban environments have transformed and how many deaths are on the roads.
This thread is about automated driving from a systematic point of view, it isn't about you.
> if it didn't treat "everyone can drive" as a truism.
No one said that or implied that anywhere here. You hallucinated some sort link between this conversation and your own frustrations.
- The handoff of control to a person is well-defined and not too sudden
- You accept that autonomous driving is essentially a convenience and safety feature with a competent driver behind the wheels at all times. No using an autonomous car to drop little Jimmy off at soccer practice. (And no summoning a shared robo-taxi service.)
You have a robo-taxi that works when it's not raining, which is still pretty good (assuming it can safely disengage/pull over if it thinks the weather is getting bad).
> Imagine your public transit system only ran in good weather. How useful would it be?
I and many other Americans live in places that don't have any public transit, so a few robocars that only worked during the day would be a huge improvement.