I'd rather not be driving in a world where the other drivers get to pick the "run a family off a cliff if it prevents a bumper dint on my vehicle" algorithm.
How would the rules be determined?
> I don't want individual people modding their cars to obey only the laws they like or to behave differently than everyone else's cars.
So basically, you don't trust the judgment of individual people. But you trust the judgment of a government that is composed of individual people?
The federal government already regulates motor carriers, including inspections by federal and state regulatory bodies. They understand how to predict risk for vehicle operations, and can scale that assessment up to massive fleets like UPS or USPS or down to an individual vehicle operator.
End of the day, individuals on average are awful at risk assessment and consistent behavior. To borrow another phrase, brakes are what allow cars to drive faster.
USDOT/FHWA
So basically, you don't trust the judgment of individual people. But you trust the judgment of a government that is composed of individual people?
Yes.
I'm happy to give up control of driving if it means car travel is safer and more convenient, just like I'm happy to get on a train, bus, or airplane and let someone else drive (under high regulation - I don't want my pilot to decide on his own that ATC is being ridiculously conservative and there's plenty of room for him to land between two A380's).
Government bureaucrats and corporate bean counters will determine how you get around.
Try this thought experiment: suppose we are at some point in the future, when self-driving cars are ubiquitous and are proven to be safer than human-driven cars. Do you want governments to have the ability to force your self-driving car to do something based on some arbitrary setting of a limit, controlled by government bureaucrats? Or do you want to have control over what algorithms your self-driving car runs and what actions it takes if it detects a problem?