yeah I have to admit I kind of chuckle whenever a news story covers a self-driving car that got in a wreck. ummm... there are countless regular human driven car wrecks every day, every minute probably, that don't even register because it is just so commonplace. I would be fine with eliminating all human driving, although actually I hope we move farther and farther away from automobiles for personal transport anyway.
It's been... 11 hours when I'm writing this reply, since you wrote the comment (sorry it took me so long to respond).
Since you left the comment, probably hundreds of car crashes happened around the world, and God knows how many people died.
How many of them will be mentioned on the news? Not all, I'm sure of that.
However, if only one single self driving car would've been involved in any possible way in a car crash, the news in the entire world will be talking about it.
It's just the world we live in. We put our trust in humans despite the fact that most things that are wrong in this world, are the way they are because of humans.
I don't know if I'd be okay with removing automobiles completely, since they are useful for some people, especially those who live far away from work and may need to drive there, or for those who have kids with far away schools.
But I think there's a problem in allowing absolutely everyone to get a car nowadays. Why would a 20 years old with no responsibilities need a car, especially if he/she can't be responsible?
I get why people who go to work and need to get there fast and safe may need a car, but not everyone is in that kind of situation. Still, everyone can buy a vehicle, no matter how irresponsible they are, and they will, at some point, endanger other people.
I'd rather see the world be filled with self driving cars that will not allow the driver to take control, this way making sure that the driver will not break ANY rule, than to trust people that they will do the right thing.
Until that happens, I guess I'm gonna stay as far away from driving as possible. I'll do it only in case of an emergency. I'd rather not risk being involved in a car crash because of some idiot who decided it's cool to drive fast in a place where that's illegal.