Even if it's lower, a single mistake from a robot surgeon will not be forgiven. That's the same problem with self-driving cars. I'm pretty sure that they're already safer than a human driver, but a single mortal accident for a technical problem will be all over the news and block any progress in legislation.

Driving is different. Thought `robot is better driver than me` is much harder to accept than `robot is a better surgeon than someone i don't know`.