A leader that fires people for challenging relevant mainstream opinions is not any kind of leader I want to work for or follow.
There we go...most of the skepticism about self-driving cars appears to be driven by ideology and less by the actual evidence. "Mainstream opinions"...it is not an opinion, there are literally thousands of these cars being tested/piloted and improved upon constantly.
Might it take a little longer to get to nirvana? probably, but it borders on delusion at this point for anyone to say it will never happen.
You can't provide evidence of something that hasn't happened, and level 5 autonomous vehicles haven't happened. All you can provide is evidence of things we have already achieved, and use that to support a strong opinion that we will be able to achieve more things.
Anyways, back to my original point, firing someone for having an informed counter-mainstream opinion is the sign of a weak and petty leader.