It's not a hard problem to solve. It's not hard to see the reasoning behind a desire for self driving cars. Anyone who lives outside of a big city in the US knows this.

Roads are already present. Traffic control is already present.

Tie the goddamn roads to the goddamn traffic control and have it coordinate the cars. The cars input their destination, and have radar to stop the car to prevent accidental collision.

The problem is people don't like that they can't get to their destination faster, they don't have the freedom of choosing their exact route, and they can't just rev their engine whenever they want.

It's not mass transit, but it solves the final distance problem.

Honey this new rail line coming up to our driveway is so super convenient! Why didn't the government think of this before?

time is a straight line. the circle is only for the easing of the incomprehending mind

Building railway tracks to achieve universal coverage for the entire US without be a massive undertaking that would require a huge effort over multiple decades. Compared to that, building self driving cars is downright trivial. Let's not forget that they exist already, albeit in limited areas. People should not let their (justified) anger at Musk blind them to reality.

So bike lanes but for cars. What could go wrong.

Trains don't self-drive, though.

Edit: Okay, for the pedants: most trains don't self-drive.