I think society is ready for it. The technology will prove itself over time, but people will adopt it quickly if given the opportunity. I wonder how many cars they would need to test this on to see if it made driving safer. That would be the ultimate test for it, because if it makes driving safer, it's worth the few bugs that it will have. Also, they should mandate that all of the cars have a manual override that still works in case the computer crashes or detects a hazard that it can't handle.
I think this has some worrying implications, For example, could someone hack into your car and make it crash while making it look like an innocent accident?
How can the children be allowed to ride in non-self-driving cars?