Therein lies the problem. People are different. Most drivers aren’t average. The average is where it is because most are quite a bit better than average but some are a very great deal worse.
Most people shouldn’t be comfortable with driverless until it’s better than they are i.e. better than almost everyone. A few people will be comfortable with it now because they’re bad at driving and smart enough to realise it (but not smart enough to return their licences and take the bus instead).
About 50/50 in my experience 
(awaits lecture on median and mean 
)
I remember hearing a senior policeman once say that the large majority of serious traffic accidents were caused by two quite small groups of people:
i) the very elderly, who were once safe but who really weren’t now, and
ii) some men whose anger/frustration had got the better of them and who were driving faster than they safely could.
And an even smaller cohort who are in both groups
I’d feel a lot safer if all cars were automated. The many thousands of miles I used to do on the motorways proved to me that at least 40% of drivers have no single clue what is going on around them and barely have enough brain power to breath.
My gut instinct, backed up by sod all data, is that motorways are the best starting points. Considerably fewer permutations to factor in, minimal likelihood of pedestrians, and lengthy journeys are also the worst for the human driver in terms of maintaining concentration.
It’s amazing how much body language a car has by the way it’s driven. I used to be able to spot the cars to keep away from quite easily when I was on the road a lot. In those days the sales rep’s had a bad reputation, but I trusted them far more than anyone else.
These days most drivers seem inadequate, they can’t keep a constant pace, keep a safe distance, signal, keep on their side of the road, pull out safely etc etc etc.
Current technology can’t “see” motorcycles, which is a bit of an issue. So it won’t see cyclists or pedestrians either. Some work needed.
My dads car did an emergency stop one evening when it spotted the local running club. They had red LED lights on their arms. His car thought it was another vehicle and slammed on the breaks. Scared the hell out of him!
I guess they’d have been going more slowly than a typical car, so maybe braking was actually the right response ? I’m sure your dad would have braked for pedestrians if they’d been in the roadway. It might have been different if they’d been running through town on the pavement, of course …
In anything other than a motorway environment, I fear a huge amount of work is needed. For now I’d sooner let a robot operate on my insides than let one drive my car.
No way.
You would up with a convoy of tosser’s watching Corrie or Neighbours doing 35 mph in the inside lane, a convoy of loaded lorries on the phone doing 48 mph in lane 2, a convoy of empty lorries doing 56 mph in lane 3 and a bunch of nutters undertaking or overtaking in all the available gaps.
No car should have built in TV etc allowed when in motion.
Ah, I was talking about driverless tech controlling the car, not allowing people to do other things.
OK, understand.
I wonder if road pricing will be the thin end of the wedge here. You could easily justify differential (cheaper) pricing for driverless on motorways based on risk. Then people will want it as it’ll cost a fiver to commute rather than twenty quid or whatever.
Ultimately I want driverless. Then I want road trains, where cars are doing 100mph nose to tail. It’ll be great, the future, but probably not for a while yet.
^ So much This ^
^ And This ^
So grateful that I no longer have to do 100s - 1000s miles a week…
Sorry, I forgot to add they were running on the pavement.
This is quite a pertinent article. https://smallbusinessprogramming.com/safety-critical-software-15-things-every-developer-should-know/
Good article.
We lived and breathed a lot of this at Ericsson Radio - mobile telephony systems, eh @coco !
Waterfall, V models all so un-cool😂
Did CMM get a mention, I don’t think it did?
Many SW developers even QA (testers in my day) just don’t have the rigor for such work.
It’s seen as over controlled and boring.
God how many of them moaned at Ericsson!
It’s not seen as creative!
You need lots of completer finishers to see the creative thinking though.
I guess if the pay was high enough…
One quote about SW engineers was, “they just want to see their creation stagger round the room like a Frankenstein monster, cause as much havoc as possible, then move onto the next hip project!” 
“Can I please see the Test report / QA sign off, before I get into your autonomous vehicle”
Keep hold of the wheel