The fact that pilots are willing to travel on a plane is the best guarantee that the plane is safe, better than any regulatory licence/permit anyway. That's one thing you'd lose, as well as not having someone to hold directly accountable.

As for driverless cars... It just seems folk are getting a bit ahead of themselves - can computers really handle all the edge cases that come up while driving? Like when you have to break some road rules temporarily in order to circumnavigate an obstruction. Or when the car gets stuck. Etc.