Re: Risky strategy at first
The problem isn't going to be the amount of experience, but the programming that applies it. Software is buggy, it could have the equivalent a trillion road hours of driving in every possible condition; it won't matter when the program applies that 'experience' incorrectly. Or sensor data is interpreted incorrectly, or wrong conclusions are reached about the condition of the road, or what have you.
Despite all the controls and testing of the software running airplanes experiences bugs, sometimes fatal ones. Look at what happened to that Mars lander that crashed due to metric/English conversion issues? That's what will trip up the self driving cars, and lawyers will know they have a deep pocketed defendant to go after. Look at all the people wanting to sue VW (in the US at least) for the lost value of their VW diesels.
Think about people who are against mandatory seat belt laws. They'll point to those rare accidents where someone is thrown clear and survives, but clearly would have died if they were belted in. Doesn't matter to them that 99% of the time being belted in is better. The same thing will happen with self driving cars, when they do have an accident that is due to a programmer error or sensor error it will be something where a human driver would have been fine. That's the Achilles heel.
Add in a coverup, which automakers love to do because they're eternally optimistic that the cost of making it public makes trying to cover it up worth it (makes one wonder how many SUCCESSFUL coverups there are if we keep hearing about stuff that was covered up and wondering why they'd do it when it harms them so much more than just coming forward when the issue is found)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
