Driverless cars will need to have many sensors.
Those sensors will have to be cleaned, inspected and calibrated a lot.
People don't even maintain their regular cars properly nowadays.
If a sensor malfunctions it might make the car go off the road or crash into another car.
Lawsuits are what will prevent driverless cars from happening.
Self-driving cars will have extensive diagnostics and refuse to move the computer thinks a sensor isn't working right. The real problem is you'll end up stranded, maybe on the way to work, because the car decides some sensor isn't working, even if the sensor is for something minor.
The massive savings from self-driving cars will mean even lawsuits won't sink them. They will dramatically reduced wrecks and fatalities. When all cars are self-driving, we'll be able to fit more than double as many cars onto existing roads, saving cities millions of dollars in road construction.
