It is worth keeping in mind that even without automatic vehicles, vehicle deaths have and will continue to fall massively.<p>From the worst in 1937 (29.357 per 100K pop) to today (10.345 per 100K pop), and falling by on average 2%&#x2F;year since 1996 (was 15.8599 in 1996).<p>Without trying to sound melodramatic, cars built in the 1990s are &quot;death traps&quot; by 2015 standards (and the same is true of 19980s cars by 1990s standards). The reason we&#x27;re seeing it fall slowly is as the late 1990s vehicles gradually disappear.<p>I suspect we&#x27;ll see a massive drop again in the next ten years even without fully automatic cars as systems like Eyesight auto-break to slow collision speeds.<p>One thing which will get interesting when we do have completely automatic vehicles is: current drink driving laws (in particular in the US) aren&#x27;t compatible with them. In many US states falling asleep in a parked vehicle with the keys is enough to get someone for &quot;drink driving&quot; (even without the driving part), so falling asleep in an automatic car could still get someone a DUI.