I'm curious to know your logic, because in my opinion it doesn't really follow.
In a city, not only do you have better/more frequently updated map data, but you also have a large corpus of cars that can share info with each other, which will be a big aspect of driverless cabs. Also the speeds don't get as high, so safety is a bit easier. Also flooding/snowstorms/other things computers can't yet handle well are more of a problem on the open road.
Your assertion that moving freight must come first, to me, has no apparent logic behind it.
If you think about it, taxi cab drivers barely need any qualifications to drive a cab. Truckers need more, almost as if trucking is a more demanding type of driving. By that alone, I feel like it's fairly apparent which would be easier to replicate on silicon.
In a city, not only do you have better/more frequently updated map data, but you also have a large corpus of cars that can share info with each other, which will be a big aspect of driverless cabs. Also the speeds don't get as high, so safety is a bit easier. Also flooding/snowstorms/other things computers can't yet handle well are more of a problem on the open road.
Your assertion that moving freight must come first, to me, has no apparent logic behind it.
If you think about it, taxi cab drivers barely need any qualifications to drive a cab. Truckers need more, almost as if trucking is a more demanding type of driving. By that alone, I feel like it's fairly apparent which would be easier to replicate on silicon.