>>> a point when it will be cheaper to pay out when (a relatively few) people die rather than invest in further R & D.

Not before a long time.

A death is really expensive, Americans are trained to sue like crazy, a car accident is a simple case to grasp and attribute to the manufacturer who has a lot of money to pay.

I'm not sure that the EU is known for particularly lax product liability laws either. Whether it makes sense statistically or not, I can pretty much guarantee that automated vehicles causing deaths as a result of stupid decisions (from the perspective of a human driver) will be shut down in a big hurry. At which point, it becomes public that it was known that the software had problems handling X, Y, and Z sort of situations but it was put on the road anyway.

The EU is regulated more by regulators. They will take some time to investigate issues and shut down the perpetrators.

The US has this "anyone can sue anyone at anytime for crazy damages" system. I'd expect any issue to quickly be brought to court and make an example out of them.

Last but not least, after the first death related to a self driving car, the second death will be on the journalists fighting for the coverage.

>Last but not least, after the first death related to a self driving car, the second death will be on the journalists fighting for the coverage.

The first death already happened with a tesla.

That was in a level 2 system, in which the driver is required to constantly pay attention. Many companies have shipped level 2 systems, and that one death is not the only one.