[stevesimmons]

That's a strawman argument... These driverless car tests are more like early phase clinical trials. Clinical trials are conducted under very tight controls, using participants who have given informed consent. Drugs don't get licensed until they can prove efficacy and safety and are approved by the FDA.

The current procedures for clinical trials are the result of decades of experience, where mistakes (and yes, occasionally shortcuts driven by greed) did result in avoidable deaths of trial participants.

For an example of how the pharma industry deals with this 'safety first' versus 'stifling innovation' dilemma, read this article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1526936/

The inevitable result of this crash is driverless vehicle testing will get regulated more like drug trials...