It's interesting how so many techies initially had the knee-jerk reaction of "well, despite this accident, I bet these Uber autonomous cars are still safer than humans".
It seems like all information available to us suggests the polar opposite.
After nearly getting hit by a car while on a crosswalk in broad daylight today, I don't think "polar opposite" is correct.
I actually made eye contact with the driver, and expected her to slow down (I was right in the middle of the street). Instead she sped up to get through the crosswalk ahead of me.
And given that a single asshole can drive only one car at a time, but can program a million cars, and given this is Uber we're talking about, I'm worried too.
I've had this happen to me so many times. It's insane that driving laws aren't strict in proportion to how much damage an irresponsible driver can inflict.
We have no information at all about the progress Waymo is making. All we've seen so far are a few videos produced by for PR under highly controlled conditions.
It seems like all information available to us suggests the polar opposite.