If Tesla are not careful with this, drivers of other vehicles will have serious reservations being anywhere around a Tesla. I have to say, I already do.<p>I will not stay behind or next to a Tesla if I can avoid it. I'll avoid being in front of one if the distance is such that I cannot react if the thing decides to suddenly accelerate or, while stopping, not break enough or at all.<p>In other words, I have no interest in risking my life and that of my family based on decisions made by both Tesla drivers (engaging drive-assist while not paying attention, sleeping, etc.) or Tesla engineering.<p>Will this sentiment change? Over time. Sure. If we do the right things. My gut feeling is program similar to crash testing safety will need to be instituted at some point.<p>A qualified government agency needs to come-up with a serious "torture" test for self-driving cars. Cars must pass a range of required scenario response requirements. Cars will need to be graded based on the result of running the test suite. And, of course, the test suite needs to include an evaluation of scenario response under various failure modes (sensor damage, impairment, disablement and computing system issues).<p>I am not for greatly expanded government regulation over everything in our lives. However, something like this would, in my opinion, more than justify it. This isn't much different from aircraft and aircraft system certification or medical device testing and licensing.