> I would be stunned if we agreed to eliminate human drivers from the road in my lifetime

It basically happened for horses.

Did it? I did a cursory search and it seems like many places still permit horse-drawn carriages, just not on limited access highways. Sometimes with fairly onerous licensing and operational requirements (speed limits, poo management, etc), but still allowed.

I think that will be how human-driven cars are in 30(?) years. Rare, but allowed with restrictions.

Horses don't vote.

Neither do cars?

Drivers, however, absolutely do. And I do not see enough drivers voting away their own ability to drive any time soon.

A few years ago I would have (and did) considered the notion that manually programming was about to turn into a quaint relic and computers would be writing 90%+ of code preposterous. Once an alternative becomes obviously superior things can change very fast.

Right, I was pointing out that at some point there was probably a horse-rider constituency as there is a driver constituency today.