Re: The old "my satnav is crap therefore autonomous cares will be unsafe" argument
There's no way in hell you'd rely on a central data feed to notify you of things like lane closures. You have to do that in real time based on environmental feedback. Yes if a road is closed, a data update to reroute all the traffic to another route is a good idea. If you rely on central updates, what happens when someone breaks down on a road and blocks a lane - you just going to run into the back of him / wait behind him because you think it's a traffic jam?
The more genuinely autonomous we can make these vehicles, the better. Ideally they'd be completely disconnected from any central update / control system, so no coordinated hack can hold everyone to ransom.
Personally I don't see the attraction of them, but if we are going down this path they have to be able to handle everything the world throws at them. After all, before long no-one will be able to drive, so who's going to get the car out of trouble ?