> At a recent conference she attended of state highway safety officials, most said they thought some models could operate themselves.
The claims being made (by manufacturers) might be misleading, sure.
However, state highway officials, in charge of investigating these exact systems, should have at the very minimum, an intermediate level understanding of the very system they will bring a judgement upon.
There's something broken in the American systems of government that seems to elevate shared ignorance to a virtue - voters seem to elect officials that are as ignorant as the voters themselves, trading charisma and confidence for competence.
This seems endemic to every level and branch of government. Some sort of mandatory education or training should be required, like 6 months of classes in civics and 6 months of domain relevant courses directly preceding the year before a candidate takes their office, and frequent refresher courses.
Too many of them aren't even qualified to select a competent advisor in a technical field, let alone make informed decisions.
I think you, and maybe others, are drawing way too many conclusions from something that's ambiguous and might well be misunderstood context.
Is it really unambiguously false that "some models [can] operate themselves"? Right up until they crash or the user is arrested.
Did you see the story about the guy who was "driving from the backseat", had his Tesla impounded, and immediately got another one to continue as before, on being released from jail?
The claims being made (by manufacturers) might be misleading, sure.
However, state highway officials, in charge of investigating these exact systems, should have at the very minimum, an intermediate level understanding of the very system they will bring a judgement upon.