So what we're debating is when, rather than if. You seem to accept that, someday, this technology will be superior to human drivers in the general case. But how

So what we're debating is when, rather than if. You seem to accept that, someday, this technology will be superior to human drivers in the general case. But how will we know, without testing in real-world conditions? At what point do we start saying a given program is safe enough to test on actual roads, not just simulations or closed courses? The alternative is to simply never allow it at all, to assume that humans will always be better drivers than computers. Which opens up an ethical dilemma. If auto-autos could save tens of thousands of lives a year - and it seems at least plausible that it could happen - then to reject it out of hand is to cause tens of thousands of innocent deaths a year.