> deaths by people driving normal cars/normal cars on the road vs. deaths in automatic cars/automatic cars on the road, by the hour on the road
These are not qualitatively the same. Drivers have a lot of control over their individual accident rate, by driving more dangerously or more safely. I want to know if the automatic system is safer than me, not just safer than the average.
And to state the obvious: the appropriate regulatory reaction to a death caused by AI is not "charge on" but investigation and improvement.
Since you may be on the reciving end of a self-driving-system gone awry, having them simply be better than average would be a good thing. Especially if we require them to always be better than average as they begin to proliferate.
These are not qualitatively the same. Drivers have a lot of control over their individual accident rate, by driving more dangerously or more safely. I want to know if the automatic system is safer than me, not just safer than the average.
And to state the obvious: the appropriate regulatory reaction to a death caused by AI is not "charge on" but investigation and improvement.