Vehicles will always encounter a large risk in certain conditions when driving, whether it's a human or a level 4/level 5 car driving. Just how much should a level 5 car be safer before we tell drivers "hey, by you putting your hands on the wheel, you are actually increasing your risk of crashing".
I don't know what "rethink" entails. It's unrealistic to change the roads and asking drivers to change the way they drive isn't going to accomplish much.
I rather focus on getting self driving cars legal, even at level 4, across the country and across the world. That will have maximum impact in reducing crashes.
Level 5 needs to be redefined I think. Level 5 says it should handle all roads and intersections that a human can do. I disagree. I think Level 5 should be where a car can take you to any address you put in, and it should be able to drop you off without intervention within walking distance of your destination, even if it took the long way to avoid a complicated intersection or road.
It also shouldn't *handle* all conditions, but it should drive better than a human in all conditions. A black ice road could result in 90% probability of crashing for a human driver. So as long as a car can drive at a level where it reduces the crash by half or so, that would be level 5 IMO. That's not *handling* black ice road. It still might do something stupid like drive too fast where a human would obviously slow down once they detect they have no friction, but the software might be good enough to compensate for the slippery road that still results in 45% crash rate.
Sure. Level 4 is imminent.
