[Christien]

Just did a quick search, in 2009 there were just shy of 34000 traffic deaths in the US. Let's assume this driver-less system will not be 100% accurate, and that some accidents will occur. There's no way any company would put its name on a product or service that resulted in anywhere near 34000 deaths per year (except maybe tobacco co's), so let's say they get the accuracy rate to 99.5%, and there are 500 fatal accidents per year. Aren't we then way ahead of the current status quo? What if the court system permitted a certain # of incidents liability-free? Like say 500 or 1000. We've still cut the annual fatalities to almost 1/40th the current rate, which, anyway you look it, is a massive improvement. So maybe computers are to blame for those 1000 deaths, rather than human error. Isn't it still preferable?