there is a massive demand for them -- in New Zeaqland, Germany, China, India etc. the wind farms provide most of the electricity. By subsidising them in the USA the USA ensured that there were American companies in this technological area.
You want to stop the subsidies, ok, but then be prepared for the rest of the world to leap ahead in this technology
AV technology is not driven due to "left wing ideology" rather due to simple market economics -- if Uber creates robotaxis it reduces its expenses by 40% (cost of the driver) and makes a killing in the market. Also more and more people want cruise-control, self-parking etc. for their cars, that's the first step to AV.
Electric cars are increasingly popular over short distances as the cost of batteries fall.
Driverless cars are freedom for some folks. If you don't want them, don't buy them.
They released the dash cam video of the "accident". The women is literally walking her bike across the street. She did not "dart" out. Any human behind the wheel would have easily been able to avoid hitting her. There were no other cars around and a simple move to the left would have saved this women's life. They are going to try to blame the backup driver who looked to not be paying attention but the reality is a human is not going to be able to react fast enough to backup a machine. The human must be driving.
This video proves these things need to be taken off our public streets immediately. Uber will get sued big time and justifiably so.