content: I broke out part 2 as a second part to reduce the unreadable wall of text. In seeming contrast to my above statements. I would never buy a car without manual override. This is entirely emotional, not rational. I can't imagine a world where I don't occasionally want to be the asshole. I simply want to speed, make illegal u-turns and forbidden left turns. It's fundamental to my need as a human to be in control and stick it to the man. I think that Google has made a terrible decision to make cars without manual controls. I may be wrong, but my sense is that it flies in the face of what users want (interesting to think of vehicle operators as users, not drivers). This raises a number of issues regarding enforcement and liability. How does a cop know whether you or Google is driving? Was there a fault in the traffic model that let you turn let where you weren't supposed to, or were you in manual? How is a cop supposed to make that call from 50yds away or after the fact? I think this is a solvable problem, but one that requires standards and regulations that aren't yet worked out.