[Spartan-S63]

The ideal, here, is that once self-driving cars reach a level where they are demonstrably safer than human drivers, the issue of liability discourages continued use of human-driven vehicles.

The way I see it is that once self-driving cars are safe and viable, anytime an accident involving a human and a self-driving car happens, the human is automatically assigned fault. It doesn't restrict your freedom to drive the car, it just makes you think twice since liability is against you should an accident happen.

This of course, assumes that self-driving cars are capable of driving perfectly within existing driving laws. If that is true, there's no way a self-driving car could legally be at-fault for an accident.