[verytrivial]

Liability, lawsuits, litigation, lawyers. The future of autonomous cars is not limited by engineering smarts. The future of the industry will come down to how punitive the jury feels when Google Inc. dragged before the courts after a Google vehicle kills people. And these vehicles will, of course, kill people. But I don't see the "they statistically kill LESS people" argument working against "a machine made by Google ran over my children." Someone needs to be sueable, right?

[DanBC]

An Uber driver attacked a passenger with a hammer. Another driver ran over some people. Neither of these events have had any appreciable effect on Uber.

T'll be interestin to see how the public reacts when a Google autonomous car kills someone.

And so many people currently use Google services I wouldn't be surprised if people have already died as a result of something Google has done.

[verytrivial]

In the Uber case you can sue the driver. So when deep-pocketed Google is the driver, I wouldn't be surprised to see people throwing themselves under the vehicles. (If anyone is about to retort with "webcams!" you're missing my point. Someone needs to be sued. If Google convinces law makers to enact laws to endemify them, then the State will be sued first, then Google.)