I think it's a matter of framing. You put your life in the hands of a machine all the time. Even when you are driving yourself -- software and mechanical engineering conspire to consistently connect your movements on the steering wheel and brakes, as well as be ready to deploy safety measures in the event of an emergency. These things fail in many different ways...if you weren't ware that the auto machine you currently use has life-threatening bugs, take a visit to the NHTSA complaint/recalls databases: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/downloads/
Robot-driving is just one more layer on top of that. And not one that frankly, seems substantially less safe than autopilot on planes, given how unreliable we ourselves are when it comes to driving. But sure, the emotional impact of hearing a self-driving car malfunction is always going to be emotionally stronger -- i.e. in the man bites dog way -- than the daily fatal accidents that happen to other people that we filter out.
The issue for me is drive-by-wire. I'm cool with a computer trying to steer as long as it gives up when I try to fight it. I also preferred the cruise control where you could feel the pedal moving under your foot, because that was the master control tied to the carburetor or sensor that managed fuel.
I still think that self-driving stuff should be more enhanced cruise control and less "there is no steering wheel or controls".
The problem with this is the limits of human attention. It's hard enough to maintain focus on long drives as it is; if the "enhanced cruise control" takes over the job entirely, the driver will have nothing to do and is likely to stop paying attention to the road at all. Then he'll either miss his chance to take manual control, or do so in a state of panic.
Robot-driving is just one more layer on top of that. And not one that frankly, seems substantially less safe than autopilot on planes, given how unreliable we ourselves are when it comes to driving. But sure, the emotional impact of hearing a self-driving car malfunction is always going to be emotionally stronger -- i.e. in the man bites dog way -- than the daily fatal accidents that happen to other people that we filter out.