3real5me...the amount of time and money needed to make even simple projects robust and truly usable, and not just a janky DIY job that needs to be used in just the right way or it's wonky is always more than you expect. No matter how many times you've been through the process.
Generally consultants on short-medium length contracts cost 3-5x hourly rate of FTEs, for long-term contracts it's usually around 2x, at least in the industries I've worked in. You'd be low balling yourself by only asking for a 50% increase for contract work.
This was default android functionality a few years ago wasn't it? I remember having the "notification dot" or whatever it was called that would light in a different colour depending on the notification.
Even if a system that actually performed well in a 100% autonomous mode was available, how is having manual override for safety actions like braking a bad thing? Why would you ever remove that? Removing it provides zero benefit whatsoever.
It's a lot more work to remove corruption than it is to introduce it. Changing the political orientation of the the ruling majority is not even guaranteed to want to fix this. It's a people problem, not a political problem.
Eh, I've had (and lost) manay pets over the years. The memories serve just fine for me. They're just pets after all, when they die I get another, it's not like they're my kids.
It should just be all at once, with a 3 month deadline.