Cars are safer for their occupants, but never really safer for pedestrians. We’re probably making them less safe for pedestrians with all the additional armor and higher center of mass.
Hypothetically they could but it appears we are making them less safe for pedestrians and cyclists -
From 2020
> an estimated 38,800 [fatal accidents] that occurred on American streets last year. Pedestrians and cyclists accounted for 8,800 of those fatalities — 23% of the total, up from 6,300 in 2010, when they comprised just 17%. During that period, fatalities for automobile occupants fell