Obviously Tesla is going to hide behind the consumer's decision here. Autopilot scared the shit out of this guy on multiple occasions, and he kept turning it on and trusting it with by far the most deadly thing he did every day. Odd choice when you put it that way, but one a lot of people make, I'm sure, maybe one that I would make.
I really hope the government isn't too aggressive in hindering companies from doing self-driving car R&D on public roads, but I would be fine with the government saying consumers shouldn't be used as guinea pigs for systems that are less safe that typical human drivers. Anecdotal evidence can't establish that self-driving cars are less safe than humans (even if it establishes that they make mistakes that humans wouldn't) so I would expect a numbers-driven standard, but self-driving technology shouldn't be unleashed on consumers until it achieves at least a human level of safety.
I really hope the government isn't too aggressive in hindering companies from doing self-driving car R&D on public roads, but I would be fine with the government saying consumers shouldn't be used as guinea pigs for systems that are less safe that typical human drivers. Anecdotal evidence can't establish that self-driving cars are less safe than humans (even if it establishes that they make mistakes that humans wouldn't) so I would expect a numbers-driven standard, but self-driving technology shouldn't be unleashed on consumers until it achieves at least a human level of safety.