In 1997, the California PATH program (www.path.berkeley.edu; especially this report) conducted studies of the effect of automated vehicles on throughput, showing that by giving up control of our vehicles we could double (at least) the capacity of our highways with almost zero infrastructure development needed. As a bonus, there would be less emissions, fewer traffic jams, fewer accidents, and far fewer hours lost sitting in traffic. The technical challenges have already been solved; all that remains is a political problem.
