It's about the unknown unknowns. If you have Teslas slamming into stopped emergency vehicles with their lights on, and you don't know why, what else don't we know about their ability to perceive and reason about the world that they're navigating in?
That said, I suspect there is some systematic issue with Tesla's system and flashing lights, and I bet they are working like demons to identify and fix it already.
Humans do a lot of dumb, irresponsible things on the road, but this is not one of them.
This cop[1] tells a lady not to stand between the vehicles because she will get killed if his patrol car gets hit, and seconds later it happens and he says "just like that".
>this is not one of them.
Yes[2], this[3] is[4] one[5] of[6] them[7].
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZDIwaRWCl0
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97D3llj0KSQ
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV5FrWTATDY
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loex5U9zD0s
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khz9hlpvhko
Just like anything else, it may not be common (or it may be 'uncommon') but, to say that it never happens, is plainly, clearly and objectively false.
The authorities are simply viewing Tesla's credibility as undermined. They ask themselves, if it can't do this, how can it get anything right, or there must be many more flaws.
The humans do not like to pass over control to machines unless the machines do it clearly better.
And in this case, the authority does not want to have their credibility shot by looking away from the Tesla issue, it cannot be pushed under the metaphorical carpet anymore, there is a bulge under the carpet visible to anyone who wants to see.
Are you comparing a fleet of cars driving millions of miles to the performance of one ostensibly good driver? Ok, I guess we’ll need perfect systems, see you after the heat death of the universe.