Perhaps because in the absence of the kind of alternative route to getting to work that autonomous cars offer, no one in (the US at least) is going to levy an economic death sentence for something that serious?
I'm so tired of this tail-wagging-the-dog excuse. It's so hard to operate in (parts of) our society without a car that we can't meaningfully hold drivers responsible for their bad behavior, or keep people who show a repeated disregard for their responsibility in operating dangerous machinery off the road?