I think s/he outlined, at least in essence, one of the (many) problems. This is an area where rigorous QA, test, re-testing, and re-re-testing should be paramount above all else -- including profits, at least at first until we get the software down pat. Do you want to trust your children's lives to some half-baked "ship it!" product? I don't.
Great, when are we going to do this for people?
Compared to what? We have some evidence that computers can do better in tightly controlled scenarios (limited access freeways) but that's always been low hanging fruit.
I think humans are pretty good drivers, actually. How many 2 lane undivided roads do people go zipping down all day, every day, with very few accidents? A ton. We're also very adaptable and good at handling outlier situations.
The problem is that we also a bit too good at creating outlier situations (stoned, drunk, exhausted, angry at X Y or Z).
We're also bad at maintaining constant focus for longer periods of time.
Compared to the potential machine driver. Yeah, one may say it's comparing reality to a dream. But it's a fact that humans have a ceiling on reaction time, focus and input processing, and machines of today all operate at levels much, much above that ceiling. That machines can be made to drive safer than humans is an extrapolation made pretty much of simple logic steps.
Humans are terrible drivers. A half crap autonomous car might still be safer than the status quo. In any case, whether talking about consumer goods or services, this is a space markets work in. Calling for rules to be written before we fully understand the problem is a recipe for overregulation.