Actually, this shows one of the strengths of self-driving vehicles: Once an issue like this is found out, acknowledged as a problem, and a fix created, from th

Actually, this shows one of the strengths of self-driving vehicles: Once an issue like this is found out, acknowledged as a problem, and a fix created, from then on it won't happen again (assuming no regressions). Gradually, the self-driving vehicles should become safer and safer; after several iterations, they should become safer than most human drivers. That is how commercial aviation became one of the safest means of transport. Every significant incident was reviewed, direct and indirect contributing factors were determined, and new procedures and/or systems developed to reduce the chances of it happening again. Unfortunately, it will take some time to get there. The initial implementations of self-driving vehicles are going to be less safe than the average human driver, and will remain so until enough experience is gathered. Not every accident is going to be of the "slow speed read-ended while waiting for the light" sort. Google has been getting away with it so far by putting a human on each vehicle, ready to take over on a hair trigger, while still trying to collect enough data to get over the safety cliff. I don't know how far they are, but by having the human assume so early, they are avoiding precisely the sort of difficult situations which could become important learning experiences.