Lifted by the network automation mega-trend, a third wave of autonomous computing and networking technologies development rises across the ICT industry. Multiple initiatives from Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), large open source projects, preeminent industry actors and renowned academic research teams have been launched in recent years and continue to emerge. This phenomenon deserves careful consideration if one wants to avoid facing the same disillusion as previous attempts at making autonomous networks a reality. While the theoretical and applied research corpus has been extensively contributed, the real world and large-scale adoption of autonomous networks has been, in contrast, relatively limited and disappointing. Since autonomous networks continue to fascinate research and engineers as a technological area full of potential and promise, the goal of this panel is to make a reality check on where we stand on the level of maturity of autonomous networks technologies and what challenges should the industry collectively address to ensure that the promises are met.