Thanks for your comment! As with any technology, it simply works the way its creators created it. :)

I think the industry greatly overpromised and then under-delivered. If people were to evaluate self-driving cars the way they do human drivers (and the whole narrative wasn't about making them safer, but rather just to replace the driver), there would be a lot less backlash and criticism.

Many of these companies tried to use "safety" as a trojan horse for what was simply a way to get rich while doing a technology project. They care more about not going to jail and having a more competitive product, than they do about safety.

The problem is that the cars weren't actually that much safer than the average human driver (who isn't causing road accidents every year). As soon as they failed on their fundamental promise, the whole industry fell apart because the market refused to pay for anything less.