You can try to save people from themselves, but it's never quite as effective as you expect. [this video] Imagine the ridiculous driving when people "know their car will stop before a crash anyway". Yeah, more people will be saved overall... but there will be a lot of "funny" results too. Personally, I'd rather have strict penalties than being forced to do the equivalent of trading a linux laptop for an iPad Pro just so I can't hurt myself or anyone else. (I drive a stick shift of course, and can turn off traction control :)
Volvo auto-brake failure video as example of safety tech limits.
The NHTSA is hinting in that direction, indicating that manufacturers must clearly distinguish between driver assistance systems (levels 1 and 2) and real self driving (levels 3 - 5). There will probably be some standard on this. There has to be; consider what happens when car rental fleets start having some of these features. There was an accident with a Volvo where someone was showing off the pedestrian safety system, and hit a pedestrian. It turned out they hadn't purchased the pedestrian safety system.[1] Something is needed to prevent problems like that. Then there's mode switching trouble. Classic problem with aircraft control systems. Tesla disengages the "autopilot" if the driver touches the brake. The trouble is that this also disables automatic braking, as the driver is assumed to now be in control. So tapping the brake without applying it fully in a hazardous situation causes a crash. All these driver behavior problems with shared control authority are hard. Maybe harder than going for level 3 and letting the automation do it. [1] [this video]
Volvo demo crash where the pedestrian safety option wasn't purchased.
>Cars brake themselves now Uber clearly doesn't follow this trend. Neither does Volvo, apparently [this video] >Pipers have parachutes Only because they're prone to a certain unrecoverable spin in some configurations. You can get a ballistic chute on a Cessna too if you like. >The Cessna 172 is a very old design That's because it's a great design, and one that has been tested for 50 years. I'd take it over modern ones. >Surviving an accident due to going too slow to die isn't "safe". It is if you don't die.
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