> I am not sure if an autonomous car will be safer. I mean, can they even do panic breaking right now (For example, if someone or something jumps in front of the car?). You know, safety is often not about having the fastest reaction time, but also about having good anticipation that any decent human driver will develop in a short time....
I think any hopes that cars will be better than humans at it is quite naive...
Even if we assume that cars won't be as good at stopping from people jumping in front of them, I would bet the number of accidents that happen from something like that are significantly smaller than the number of accidents from human error like texting while driving, being drunk, or just not paying attention due to fatigue or whatever else.
Not to mention, how can you really even tell the difference between someone who's walking towards your car but will stop and someone who isn't? Not even humans can do that since we can't read minds.
Even if we assume that cars won't be as good at stopping from people jumping in front of them, I would bet the number of accidents that happen from something like that are significantly smaller than the number of accidents from human error like texting while driving, being drunk, or just not paying attention due to fatigue or whatever else.
Not to mention, how can you really even tell the difference between someone who's walking towards your car but will stop and someone who isn't? Not even humans can do that since we can't read minds.