What puzzles me is if autonomous vehicles are such a "no-brainer", then why haven't all phases of rail movement not been fully automated? Compared to rail traffic the open road seems like a free-for-all!

Eoin Treacy's view

Thank you for a relevant question and this is something I have also been pondering. This article from Wired.com tackles the issue and their answer comes down to line of sight, unions and lack of desire to upset the status quo rather than any particular deficiency in the technology. .