>Why shouldn't it be on the level of airline travel?

In all fairness, commercial airlines operate in an environment that's mostly highly regulated with respect to maintenance, training, traffic management, etc. But I agree with your general point. After all--except arguably with respect to some drug side effects--there isn't really any consumer-facing product that regularly kills people and we shrug out shoulders and say "Hey, stuff happens" and get on with our day.

Tons: alcohol being just one example.

Substances used to excess and technology like electricity used improperly are in a different category than consumer-facing products that can kill you randomly through no fault of your own.

Why?. Alcohol is a consumer product sold everywhere and is one of the main killers.

Tobacco is an even better example, in that even when used in the "recommended" way it's often fatal.

And there was a very large settlement related to tobacco.

Legal "drugs" and unhealthy foods are something of a special case. They've been around for a very long time and we've decided as a society we're mostly accepting of them and have greater or lesser restrictions on their purchase and use.

But we're pretty unaccepting of consumer products that are assumed to be safe and then blow up or malfunction in some manner that kills a user minding their own business and not doing anything wrong.

> Why shouldn't it be higher? Why shouldn't it be on the level of airline travel?

Who said it shouldn't?

OP. He was bemoaning the fact that we hold driverless cars to a higher standard than average drivers.

I think OP was just pointing out a fact, not bemoaning.