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It might be easier to free up some of those man-years by planning and constructing towns/cities such that people don’t have to drive in them, than developing self driving cars. The two things aren’t even mutually exclusive, you could have a happy, mostly non-car based existence, and then supplement it with a self driving car on the occasion that you really need it (assuming it’s ever achieved).

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If you solution begins with "throw away 100 trillion dollars in built-up infrastructure," the idea probably isn't very good.

Ha! Maybe not, at the scale of the US it might well be intractable. That said, the Netherlands made such a transition over the 80’s and 90’s so it is possible to some degree. You do need a population willing to undergo the transition though. And it’s not something that’s done overnight of course.

I just found it somewhat ironic that instead of considering alternatives, people would rather hold out for self driving cars, which may never happen, to reduce time wasted in driving.

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