With automated driving the question is simply: How much more do we value an overall reduction of crashes compared to having to live with crashes that a driving human would've easily avoided?

On a societal level, we should theoretically be in favor of self-driving cars as soon as they cause fewer crashes than human-operated cars – even if it's just a couple of percent.

However, on a personal level, it probably takes a much more significant rate to convince many individual drivers. That's because a vast majority of drivers thinks of themselves as above average.

The perceived stupidity of automated driving accidents, like driving straight into objects or coming to a stop in the middle of the road makes them particularly likely to be picked up by the media, which raises the exposure of people to these issues. The hundreds of daily crashes caused by inattention or other human error just slide by without being noticed.

This causes a similar situation as fear of flying. It's much safer to fly than to drive a car, but plane crashes become huge news stories, which causes some people to develop an irrational fear of flying, while having no issue with driving.