As with the onset of the previous AI winter a generation ago, the problem is this: Once a problem gets solved (be it OCR or Bayesian recommendation engines or speech recognition or autocomplete or whatever) it stops being AI and starts being software.
As for self-driving cars: I recently took a highway trip in my Tesla Model S. I love adaptive cruise control and steering assistance: they reduce driver workload greatly. But, even in the lab-like environment of summertime limited access highways, driverless cars are not close. Autosteer once misread the lane markings and started to steer the car into the side of a class 8 truck. For me to sit in the back seat and let the car do all the work, that kind of thing must happen never.
Courtesy is an issue. I like to exit truck blindspots very soon after I enter them, for example. Autosteer isn't yet capable of shifting slightly to the left or right so a driver ahead can see the car in a mirror. Maybe when everything is autonomous that won't be an issue. But how do we get there.
Construction zones are problems too: lane markings are confusing and sometimes just plain wrong, and the margin for error is much less. Maybe the Mobileye rig in my car can detect orange barrels, but it certainly doesn't detect orange temporary speed limit signs.
This author is right. AI is hype-prone. The fruits of AI generally function as they were designed, though, once people stop overselling them.