The knock-on effects are more interesting, in some ways. A nation where shared, autonomous vehicles are normal would likely have a totally different set of considerations in urban planning. Cars and spontaneous roadtrains can take the place of light rail and urban transport. Inner-city parking might disappear, and commutes could be much longer. You can imagine two effects: suburbs could really spread out for those who want space and don't mind a couple of hours each way reading the newspaper or snoozing, and cities can concentrate and build way up as you no longer have to build parking space into apartments. A more densely populated city with fewer dedicated drivers might have more political reasons to become bike-friendly.
I now understand it can handle the terrain, thanks for the explanation that is pretty neat they could do it thirty years ago, just curious when I tell it to go to a house in the middle of a 20 acre property with multiple private roads, and I use the term road lightly, if it is actively going to search for a path or if it will have to have manual intervention.
I have seen google cars handle well mapped streets, just curious.