There's absolutely no evidence to support this, is there? How would self-driving cars result in larger and more grisly accidents?
Algorithmic error - algorithm responds poorly to rare environmental condition (naturally or artificially generated).
Emergent behavior error - algorithm for individual vehicle safety causes unsafe conditions for groups of vehicles in certain circumstances.
Security vulnerability - mass hacking of vehicle systems by malicious actors.
Bureaucratic vulnerability - politician or bureaucrat demands mass remote disabling of vehicles or other mass action that plays well in a television soundbite, but for which the system was not designed and can not carry out safely.
There are some big challenges for automated driving. The backlashes against the inevitable disasters could define the industry. No one is going to pay for more than token research into these areas, and regulation is always at least 20 years behind. It's up to the engineers on the ground to build in mitigation mechanisms.
Of course, when something goes wrong with that, yes, the accident would be more severe, because the velocity is higher and the likelihood of multi-car collision would also go up.
Of course, the effect may be akin to an airplane crash: When one crashes, the survival chances are lower, and more people are killed, than say, in a car crash. However, the frequency of the incident is drastically less, and hence airplanes are generally understood to be safer, statistically.
If we expect to get to that level, then the crash investigators better be closer to airplane crash level care then our current level of investigation.
How many pedestrians are killed by jumping between two train wagons?
> How many pedestrians are killed by jumping between two train wagons?
How many tires blow out per year, or cars get slippery?
Taking small steps is fine, but the smallness should be in the location, not the density. Just a small neighborhood with only self driving cars, instead of a large neighborhood with a small proportion of self driving cars.
And of course, a deer-free neighborhood will be best to start with.
From the article: "One of the claims made for autonomous cars is that they can be lighter, shedding heavy metal crash cells and expensive safety gear, like airbags, saving fuel."
We would also need to get most of the humans off the road. No amount of self-driving AI can dodge a human with intent (or stupidity), a similar performing vehicle and a headstart.