On top of that, when you factor in the utility of driving a car, the risk/reward ratio looks stellar. Humans are better drivers than given credit for, and it will be some time (much longer than a lot of enthusiasts will admit) before computers manage to match that.
That's one of the top killers anyway you slice it and every single one of those deaths is preventable.
PS: Truckers drive up to 3,000 miles per week * 48 weeks per year * 47 years (65-18) that's ~6.7 million miles. US death rate is ~1:88 million miles on average. So if they where as dangerous as average that's ~1 death per 13 truckers. However, they are safer than this and average less miles. Still, it's one of the most dangerous US jobs.
I don’t see how that’s an argument in favor of letting today’s self driving cars loose on the road.
We don’t let people without any driving experience drive cars either because, if we let them, they “will improve soon”.
Or are you suggesting letting self-driving cars loose now is a necessary sacrifice we have to make to make progress?
Yes we do, that's exactly what a learner's permit is for.
The trend of things machines can do better than people really only goes in one direction. Further people are vastly worse at driving than they think, over 1.25 million people die per year due to car accidents. That's insane.