I don't think driverless will ever truly compete with the ability of a well trained driver as far as avoiding accidents. I can think of at least ten instances of accidents I managed to avoid that a driverless car would of not have been able to of. Of course you can say well the other driver was human, but hey if in your mind automated driving wont replace human drivers, then there you go.

Another point I would like to make is that you are not taking these companies into account as far as their motives for profit goes. They will undoubtedly seek for their friends in government to render human driving illegal in a push for more profits. They send out their lobbyists, pay off a few people and before you know it a bill to render most human driving illegal. There isn't a tradeoff between safety and freedom by the way.

With freedom we are responsible for our own safety. By the way government can't take away freedom. I know I go on about the dangers of freedoms being taken away, but in reality the constitution does NOT grant us freedoms it simply states we are born with them. Therefore the only way freedoms can be lost is if people willingly give them up on an individual basis. My whole point here is don't go with what the crowd thinks is cool because of the novelty, think about the intention behind this push for driverless vehicles. There's a lot more to it than 'protecting' people.

Believe me I understand the novelty of it. I have thought about driverless vehicles since before 2000. I envisioned a driverless transportation system. Buses picking up passengers, dropping them off on routes, stopping automatically at red lights. The idea increases efficiency, there is no driver to need a break, they can run 24/7. If they are powered electrically they wouldn't even need to stop to be refueled and they could be powered off a wireless system that charges onboard battery through a line of sight system along the routes. So you see I'm no technophobe but when you extend this to regular cars, there are new toll roads, new tracking methods you can see the idea here is to stifle freedom of movement, and that is not a good thing for you and me.