Obviously, as there is very little alternative to human error right now. But there's no reason to believe that to be the case when you introduce autonomous vehicles. There's a whole new variable.
Still, a required step for progress.
If you still don't believe me go compare the "optimization" of your local DMV and the Google labs where these autonomous cars are being created and see if you walk aways with any illusions of Government grandeur.
Manufacturing defects, eg faulty brakes.
Have we? The highest profile one I know of turned out to not be be software at all (Referring to Toyota accelerator[1]), but rather a combination of floor mats and human error.
Care to expand why do you think that?
I think there are many reasons to believe human errors will still be the majority cause of accidents after some cars are autonomous. The main, and most touted reason, is that driving is one of the types of tasks computers are much better suited to than human beings. Driving well is, mostly, just following a few clear repetitive rules over and over. We still fail at that very often, but computers excel at following clear rules repetitively.
So there are many reasons to believe computers will outperform humans at driving. And, in my opinion, by a large margin. I'm intrigued to know why you wouldn't think so.