Yeah, it looks like deaths per mile has been on a steady decline:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_safety_in_the_U...

Not exactly a steady decline, quote from the NPR article linked above:

In its own early estimates that were released late in 2015, NHTSA reported seeing a 3.5 percent rise in vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. But it also said the fatality rate — the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled — was rising at a slightly higher pace of 4.4 percent.

Maybe the average number of people riding the same vehicle has increased?

> attributed to increased driving, encouraged by economic factors such as higher employment and lower gas prices

Interesting - I always assumed that the increase in road deaths was at least largely due to increased cellphone usage, resulting in distracted drivers.

It's not to say that's not still the cause of many of them, just that with more people on the road more accidents can occur.

Perhaps they've been offset by increased safety standards.

I wonder what fraction involved smartphones?

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/business/tech-distract...

Rather than speculate on anecdotes, perhaps we can focus on actual data[0]. 2014-2015 only saw a +280 change in fatalities caused by distractions (read: texting).

Florida and Georgia combined saw a +190 drunk driving fatalities in the same period.

EDIT: found a more specific report about electronic device usage: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...

[0]: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...

UPS has 400,000 employees. Autonomous driving would pay itself off very quickly even if one of uber's cars personally murdered every single UPS and FedEx employee. Of course, the issue at play isn't joblessness, but the lack of a safety net for when people lose their jobs. Still, in the u.s., very few people actually starve to death, even when unemployed.

Perhaps lack of health care will kill them all. But was their health care that good to begin with? Perhaps an actual solution for root problems is the better route.

Replacing employees is not the problem. In fact, it's a good thing. It frees people up to do more enjoyable things with their lives.

The problem is that our economic system is unequipped to handle a world in which people aren't expected to work jobs "just because."

I disagree. Technology should be focused with all things that reduce the need for human labor.

What we need is what gp says: a decent social safety net. It cannot happen as long as we vote for people who want to reduce taxes.