[Johnny555]

Maybe not airliner level of safety, but based on the top causes of car accidents, they could probably be reduced by an order of magnitude with relatively inexpensive improvements:

  1. better driver training
  2. breathalyzer ignition interlocks
  3. speed limiters (even more reduced speed at night/rain)
  4. traffic light detection/automatic braking
  5. enforced following distance

(I'd add "sleep/impaired driver warnings", automatic emergency braking (including pedestrian detection) even though it doesn't quite relate to the top causes of accidents))

Here's the top ten:

  1. Distracted Driving
  2. Drunk Driving 
  3. Speeding
  4. Reckless Driving
  5. Rain
  6. Running Red Lights
  7. Night Driving
  8. Design Defects/Maintenace
  9. Tailgating
 10. Wrong-Way Driving/ Improper Turns