What the Largest Tech Confab of the Year Revealed About Self-Driving Cars

Amir Efrati provides a dispatch from CES in Las Vegas, where the "hype machine" from the auto industry turned it down a notch this year compared to previous years.

What live demonstrations of autonomous vehicle technology at CES made clear was that self-driving cars for urban streets won’t be available for sale to the public for at least several years. Even then, their capabilities will be limited. 

Efrati rounds up a series of key observations to build a case to support that assertion, focusing on the surprises and obstacles on the road that still challenge self-driving cars, the technology companies dueling it out for market supremacy, and the shifting goal post in terms of expectations for autonomous vehicles in the near and mid-term future.