> IMO, minimum requirement for level 5 driving is merely to match human driver accident rates.
Minimum requirement for nerds, maybe. Minimum requirements for ordinary folks will probably be more along the lines of "will be noticeably better than me on average" and "will not make any given mistake more frequently (or more severely) than I would".
i.e. I expect people a lot of people would want "strictly better than me on practically every axis" as their minimum requirement, not just "on par with me based on the average accident rate". People just aren't going to put up with seeing cars make dumb mistakes that they would never make, even if the accident rate ends up being good on average.
Not in the courts, no. If switching to self-driving reduces accident rates in 99% of situations, but in that last 1% someone gets killed, then there's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Lawsuits happen with existing cars. Life goes on.
IMO, minimum requirement for level 5 driving is merely to match human driver accident rates.