What a clueless and horribly written article; was this written by a junior high school student?? No wait - they would probably do better. 

"Yet it isn’t inherently clear why cars—whether or not humans are driving them—get to jump to this special, climate crisis-solving status" uh - you actually anser this in your OWN ARTICLE in many spots including "AVs could either reduce energy use by up to 90 percent." And there is no citation of who is bestowing this 'status' on AVs and what should happen instead.

And then the shocking revalation that  - "The fundamental problem... is human behavior." Wow!! Amazing!!

The real question here is why does Seattle Weekly get journalism 'cred'?