I feel like in order to patent a thing, you should need have to have a credible implementation of the thing being patented. An implementation of this clearly requires at least level 4 autonomy[0], which AFAIK, nobody has demonstrated. This is only slightly closer to a real-world implementation than a patent for asteroid mining, never mind commercial viability. Mind you, I don't consider that a bad thing; this is pret…
I think the better solution would be to say "you registered the patent, you get credit for the idea, but whoever makes it first gets the legal rights to sell it" - then people get credit for idea creation and also for making it a reality. I'd ideally add that they have to publicly disclose the info as well but idk how that would affect R&D