By Zack Pack It seems like self-driving cars have always been the hot item for disruptive innovators in the auto industry. The image of sitting back, Minority Report style, in a sleek new vehicle with an AI-powered robot that effortlessly guides your car across town has bewitched many starry-eyed investors. In fact, over $100 billion dollars have been invested in self-driving technology since it was first seriously proposed. But what have these hopeful investors received for their money besides some flashy tech showcases? Why have self-driving cars been so difficult to go mainstream? Critics point to the technology as being deficient. It’s nearly impossible for computers to understand all the real-world nuances that human drivers must interpret each time they take the wheel. Poorly paved roads, unpainted lines, a fallen tree… for human beings these are things we can quickly recognize and adapt to. For even the most sophisticated AI…