But humans are really shitty drivers.

The software would have to be written by chimps for it to be worse than human drivers.

I fully expect all kinds of errors to cause human death. I just hope the backlash doesn't destroy something that could save very many lives.

That's pretty unlikely though. It's not like cars are going from manual-everything to autonomous all at once. Multiple levels of traction control and steering assistance are already in control of your car, and they prevent more accidents than they cause. Autonomy is going to be rolled out in pieces and tested little by little.