“So, once the route has been pre-mapped; why does this matter?”
Map constantly changes - water main break, construction, re-striping, new pothole, the list is endless.
“Off-road use may be a problem — for a while.”
Its more than off road. Look at where the Google Street car is not allowed to go...that is where a Google car could not go: Military installations, office parks, commercial parking lots, apartment complexes, gated communities, military installations.
“Map constantly changes - water main break, construction, re-striping, new pothole, the list is endless.”
The data will be updated continuously by input from the fleet of autonomous vehicles. It won’t require starting from scratch, each time something changes.