The problem is it's not totally irrational to be freaked out by this. Think about the distribution of the error rate.
A lot of fatal accidents can be attributed to inexperience, distracted driving, running lights, drugs, alcohol, asleep at the wheel, medical events or extremely aggressive driving.
The distribution of unsafe driving is not even. Personally I had 2 accidents in my teens and 0 for the following 20 years.
Your typical taxi driver will be fired/fined/reported over time if they drive this way. Further, if you are in a taxi where you notice a driver making you uncomfortable, you can end the ride early (I have).
However, imagine a robodriver that is 4x safer, however every single vehicle on the road has the same probability in any instant of invoking the same "no human would make this mistake" driving error fatally.
An analogy would be that at any moment, your calm, courteous, focussed spouse behind the wheel suddenly transforms into a 17 year old teen in a Mustang.
There's a difference between "I'm 4x safer", and "I'm expected to be 4x safer than the average person is now".
The GP is arguing that there is a way to actively become safer than the average person by avoid getting into "dangerous" situations. This may or may not be 4x safer than average though. There's this element of control that is lost when it comes to AI driving.
The relevant point to you is, if you already have good driving skills, always drive responsibly, and generally avoid driving in areas/times that have more drunken drivers around, then you might not actually benefit 4x.
Yes, this is the point I am making. If you do not engage in risky behavior, and are not distracted, you are likely already 2-4x safer than an average driver. So AI driving may not make your driving better.
Next problem is everyone else's driving!
It's like an arms race / tragedy of the commons issue as well.
Your safe driving doesn't matter if other people are still running lights / driving drunk / etc.
In absence of near-perfect AI driving, followed by government mandates to take everyone else off the street.. it doesn't matter.
And this is never going to happen.
It makes no difference to the pedestrian, cyclist or any other party in a crash. One does not choose whether one crashes with/gets run over by a novice or an experienced driver.
It doesn't require government action. Insurance will see computers causing fewer accidents, requiring lower payouts and adjusting rates accordingly. Penalties for drunk drivers might become harsher because they now have an alternative. Ditto for old people. Commuters will like having their hands and eyes free. Robo taxis will also make a dent in the market. Over time the number of human-driven vehicles will decrease on its own and it'll make less sense to get a driving permit in the first place.
My understanding is that that is a punishable offense in most states, so that's a matter of consistently enforcing existing laws rather than introducing any new ones.
Anyway, the mechanisms I have listed can still drive adoption of self-driving cars and reduce the number of human-driven cars on the road which also reduces the number of fatalities if the self-driving ones outperform humans. And if we look at QALYs instead of fatalities there may be additional benefits.
A lot of fatal accidents can be attributed to inexperience, distracted driving, running lights, drugs, alcohol, asleep at the wheel, medical events or extremely aggressive driving.
The distribution of unsafe driving is not even. Personally I had 2 accidents in my teens and 0 for the following 20 years.
Your typical taxi driver will be fired/fined/reported over time if they drive this way. Further, if you are in a taxi where you notice a driver making you uncomfortable, you can end the ride early (I have).
However, imagine a robodriver that is 4x safer, however every single vehicle on the road has the same probability in any instant of invoking the same "no human would make this mistake" driving error fatally.
An analogy would be that at any moment, your calm, courteous, focussed spouse behind the wheel suddenly transforms into a 17 year old teen in a Mustang.