How many of those deceased children would have survived the collision if no airbags were installed?

Self-driving cars preform predictably under a set of conditions. The primary problem arises when the car, for whatever reason, doesn't correctly detect that it's in an unfamiliar condition and continues moving as normal. Humans are intelligent enough to notice when something is "off".

For a machine as heavy, large, fast, and close as a car, limited intelligence is not enough.