It’s matching European standards after years of American roads becoming deadlier while the rest of the world is getting safer. I wouldn’t read anything more into it than “we’d like fewer dead people on our roads”.

Wait, which directive mandates auto-braking?

Even if true, who cares, if it means fewer preventable fatalities?

"If we can save one life, it's worth it" is part of the reason everything is so expensive in the US. People forget that poverty is also deadly and don't factor that into the calculation.

I'd argue that profit margins are more to blame here.

Then you'd be against giving gifts to Detroit to keep those high.

The article says it will save a estimated 362 lives per year at a cost of 82$ per car or 354 M$/yr. The actuarial value of a human life is usually around 5 M$, so that is a societal ROI of 5 if we only count fatalitys.

Your model assumes a even distribution of funds across society.

you don't have a better assumption.