> Robot cars don’t make human mistakes, they make alien mistakes like running down kids on the sidewalk in broad daylight, things which don’t make any sense at

> Robot cars don’t make human mistakes, they make alien mistakes like running down kids on the sidewalk in broad daylight, things which don’t make any sense at all that make people feel like they aren’t anywhere safe. This expresses well the perceived difference between catastrophic human and machine errors. I have two cars, a ’99 4Runner and a Tesla Model S. When driving my S, I’m at an involuntary elevated state of alertness compared to my 4Runner. I think it’s discomfort at driving a car that might suddenly kill me through failure modes that I can’t possibly anticipate. While I think my S’s technology is much more likely to result in my safe travel than my dumb iron 4Runner, my subconscious maintains a different assessment. I expect this dichotomy in perceived risk is generational and will disappear after a decade or two of lower accident rates in autonomous vehicles compared to human drivers.