Which Automaker has a Lead in Autonomous Vehicle Development?

Your question is flawed in that it assumes that the lead is held by an automaker. I may know who holds the lead but big brother is watching and I am not planning on a free holiday in Guantanamo any time soon.

Good point! I will expand my question to include all comers, "automaker" or not!

The one with the greatest number of industrial spies.

In a recent thread on AI, one of the issues (though stated in a military context) was that when critical events occur human brain activity (cognitive processes almost stop) and the individual doesn't really think and rather just reacts.

Applying that to autonomous vehicles, I would think that in the moment of loss of control or just prior to an accident - those we would consider professional drivers probably experience the same reduction in cogitative brain function and just react.

So how do we 'program' vehicles to calculate their reaction in those critical moments, when 'skilled' humans don't 'calculate' in similar situations?

That is my thought on the obstacle, because over-programming a controlled operation essentially transitions autonomous vehicles into trains that travel on a guided roadway rather than rail. And if that's the case - if there is one glitch in the system, and vehicles aren't able to compute/act independently - then the whole impacted area just stops.

As for who's in the lead - not touching that one either.