The car will only drive itself on highways; an engineer will take over on smaller roads.
In other words, the car will only drive itself under the most ideal conditions.
I didn't see any follow-up articles indicating whether the test was successful. I'd be interested to see what they learned.
In my line of work, it's becoming more clear that automated vehicle technology is going to be caught between two conflicting challenges for the foreseeable future. Most people will tend to either trust the technology too much (like the Tesla driver who didn't pay any attention to the road), or too little (in which case they won't be willing to pay a premium for the technology).
That cross-country test was still only a test, and because those vehicles are still being tested, the engineers and development companies are still having to monitor and take over under certain conditions. However, that’s not to say that the vehicle could not have completed the test without the engineers’ help or intervention. When it comes to local roads, well, there are still many municipalities that have not authorized self-driven vehicles on their roads.
When it comes to the two challenges you mention for the self-driven vehicles, well...
Trust comes with experience, and when most people experience of read/hear about the many advantages and safety built into the self-driven vehicles, then the trust will come, and people will start trusting those vehicles more than they would trust their own driving skills. Being apprehensive about something new, is a human trait, but like I said, it takes time and experiencing something for people to come around.
Your second challenge will turn out to be a moot point, because, once autonomous vehicles become accepted and entrenched into everyday life, people will start realizing that they don’t need to own those vehicles, and will instead opt to go the ride-hailing route, where they just issue a call for a vehicle as the need arises, and will never have to pony up for purchasing those vehicles. Furthermore, there won’t be a premium price to be paid for the new technology, since, once it becomes commonplace, the prices will come down, and in fact, the prices of most of those (if not all) will come down. Why? Well, because with the autonomous tech, a lot of the mechanical parts that a person uses to steer and move a car, won’t be there anymore. So, those vehicles will be swapping out some current tech for new future tech, and it could end up even in price or actually less. A steering column has a lot of tech and moving parts in it, and so do the brakes and gas pedals, and heck, even the rearview and side mirrors will be gone.
So, no premium prices, and no concerns about trusting the technology. It will take time, but it will happen, and perhaps sooner than most people suspect.