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> will we demand perfection from autonomous cars before we allow them out of “test” status?

Not perfection, just no human injuries for the limited duration of the tests, that is, for a few billion km or so.

That's a standard no human driver could possibly achieve, for the simple fact that no human drove a billion miles. I think setting such standards, which will be close to impossible to achieve (and/or take centuries) is helpful.

How many human injuries are there per few billion km when humans are driving? Why isn't that the baseline we compare against?

On highways, the number of human injuries is a lot lower than you think. Most accidents are on surface streets, which is not where most "self-driving" features are purported to be usable.

> On highways, the number of human injuries is a lot lower than you think.

Sure, but it's not zero.

In the US in 2021[0], 5658 people died on rural and urban interstates combined. This was 13.2% of all roadway deaths.

0. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...

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