Just remember, it isn't a matter of whether self-driving cars ever fail. They only have to do better than the current, abysmal ~3,000 fatalities per day.
Furthermore, this needs to be balanced against the potential for some seriously ugly 1984-style stuff when you give an external authority control of millions of cars. I don't understand how someone can complain about TSA regulations one day and turn around and ask for mandatory automated cars the next.
I don't think it's useful to include all countries in a statistic like that.
In that 3000 you're including countries without roads, signs, traffic laws, etc. You're including countries without speed limits, driving licenses, etc etc.
Wikipedia says the deaths in the US are about 90 a day.
Conversely, I think it is reasonable to assume that the orange and red countries on the map can and will eventually look like Europe. Higher than 150, yes, but 3000 only if you count deaths from places like Iran.
That's certainly a fair point. But you try explaining that to a person who lost a spouse or a child in a car crash resulting from a "glitch". Humans, for better or worse, like to have a sense of control over their own circumstances, even when that sense is almost completely illusory.
