[klyrs]

No, absolutely not. I'd say that Tesla flirts with the opposite outcome, that we saw with nuclear power. Early catastrophic failures resulting from premature deployment can produce a very reasonable revulsion away from the technology, such that the technology will have a PR problem well past the "break even" point. That folks continue to be bullish on self-driving tech despite cars repeatedly hitting stopped emergency vehicles at speed tells me that tech enthusiasts haven't learned from history.

[postalrat]

The problem nuclear power has had is nuclear reactors are a great tool to build materials for a nuclear bomb. If everyone accepted them then access to nuclear weapons would have been a lot easier.

[klyrs]

Are you implying that autonomous navigation isn't a stepping stone to powerful weapons?

[postalrat]

Useful but not on the level of access to nukes.

[klyrs]

That remains to be seen. Mass-produced autonomous drones could quite conceivably get similar kill counts as nukes.