If you gave a random sample Tesla-level autopilot with their current car and walked them through how to use if, I'd guess that at least 75% would want to use it regularly.
Familiarity and basic understanding work wonders on shifting the human mind.
I have one because I need it for online booking, my first one was revoked because I apparently cost them more by not using it enough. I practically don't see a significant benefit, most places accept other forms of payment.
> caller ID
faked and missing all the time.
> subject to a machine built of (per A.C.Clarke) pure magic.
As a software dev. I really would feel much safer with pure magic. I will buy your self driving car the moment Linux went a year without new significant bugs or exploits. Not even bug free, just no significant bugs. I do not trust the industry in its current state to produce a complex piece of software that can reliably control a car in an even more complex and constantly changing environment.
Most people find "swipe and pay later" far more convenient, "pizza shop already knows where to deliver" & "oh it's Joe, I'd better answer" far more convenient, etc. Yes they're imperfect, but the flaws aren't "all the time" - they're lost amid the overwhelming convenience.
Opposite your "complex piece of software that can reliably control a car" is "humans who damage/injure/maim/kill other drivers with alarming frequency" (but the aforementioned overwhelming convenience mitigates our concern). Sure we want "no significant bugs", but rapidly reaching the point where even the existing & concerning bugs are better than facing distracted/drunk/debilitated/dumb human drivers.
As I said most places accept other options of payment and the pay later part seems completely irrelevant unless you have money management issues.
> "oh it's Joe, I'd better answer"
Usually it fails for people I know. Which makes it anoying since I usually can call back my mother later as she tends to call every few days, but have to answer when its my landlord who only calls when I missed something important.
> but rapidly reaching the point where even the existing & concerning bugs are better than facing distracted/drunk/debilitated/dumb human drivers.
Amount of drunk drivers I face daily on average: 0.0001. Amount of self driving cars is see daily if we adopt them completely: ~500.
I would still take my risk with running into that one drunk driver over several thousand buggy cars daily.
I remember when credit cards, caller ID, online shopping, tax software, etc were all new. Each was loudly denounced as evil for various reasons; eventually the benefits became so obvious that we all now use those techs with little concern - even though many/most of the concerns were warranted. Just became too convenient to use them.
Self-driving will be the same. Scary concept to hurtle down the road completely & existentially subject to a machine built of (per A.C.Clarke) pure magic. Once in one, and seeing how smoothly & smartly it transports you, people will quickly embrace self-driving cars ... especially when they discover how too darned convenient it is to use them.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And self-driving neural-net cars, to most, are flat-out magic.