Is there actual evidence it’s safer though? All I’ve seen is claims by the self driving companies which I do not trust. Where is the independent research on this topic?
There was an article on here yesterday about how these are causing havoc in SF for emergency responders. I’m sure they’re safer in some cases but I want to see proof that they’ve accounted for every possible scenario. That’s quite difficult to do. Not to mention that cars are still dangerous even if you completely eliminate driver error.
Anecdotally, I see them all the time in my neighborhood, and they seem much more attentive to pedestrians and stop signs than regular drivers. Drivers in this neighborhood act like they own the place even though there's probably an equal number of pedestrians out at any given time.
I've also seen one of them fail to pull over when an emergency vehicle was behind it, so I buy that they are causing some problems.