> I think we're still in too young a phase with autonomous vehicles. Theoretically, computers should be able to avoid pedestrians/cyclists much better than (very distractable) human drivers, but I don't know if the technology is fully there yet.

If we define "autonomous vehicles" as something like "full self driving cars" then yeah obviously the technology isn't there yet. That said, I think there is a lot of technology available right now that is well short of that threshold that could save plenty of pedestrian lives. Automatic emergency braking already exists in a number of cars and hopefully already helps avoid some pedestrian collisions (especially in daylight). We also definitely have the technology to actually enforce speed limits by software if we wanted to, we just lack the will.

On the whole, I would not seek to discourage vehicle autonomy features right now, despite the existence and well-publicized failures of of Musk the Moron. In the long run I'm sure they will be a good thing, and they are already probably having some meaningful positive effects.