Perhaps because the promise of autonomy is that you will be able to let go, close your eyes, take a nap, or read a book. That is really hard to do if you have even a 0.0001% chance of hitting something and dying because your car didn't do something right.
Sure, your chances of getting into an accident while driving your own car are higher, and some dummy could throw a turkey onto your windshield and kill you ...etc, but humans don't think in probabilities (well, outside of Hacker News humans), and while driving their on car humans have an illusion of control, when the car is driving itself and you are sleeping, that control is gone.
> That is really hard to do if you have even a 0.0001% chance of hitting something and dying because your car didn't do something right.
Have you ever flown in a plane before? Some people are more nervous than others about giving up control but billions of people still do it because the benefits vastly outweigh slight anxiousness about that billion to one chance. People will not want to drive in an autonomous vehicle right up until they see they can give up their $40k car and hail a driverless taxi to go anywhere for pennies on the dollar.
I think people who are born into it will be fine with it. You probably get inside elevators without second thoughts. If you are of the age of the typical HN reader, they've been L4 autonomous since you were born, so you don't think about it.
With planes I think most people realize that the trained pilot is a better pilot than they are, so they feel more at ease giving up control to someone that is better than them. People just need to see that similarly, software drives cars better than humans.
Sure, your chances of getting into an accident while driving your own car are higher, and some dummy could throw a turkey onto your windshield and kill you ...etc, but humans don't think in probabilities (well, outside of Hacker News humans), and while driving their on car humans have an illusion of control, when the car is driving itself and you are sleeping, that control is gone.