I am ambivalent. My personal opinion is that the majority of the safety improvements that will supposedly come with full autonomy can also be largely realized with the semi-autonomous safety and driver-assist systems currently on the market (lane-keeping assist, brake assist, blind spot monitoring, "smart" cruise controls, etc.).

Hypothetically speaking, autonomous driving has some distinct advantages in certain circumstances (such as congested city centers) but in no way is it a viable replacement for all manual driving. This is especially true in geographically diverse and large countries like the U.S. and Canada.

Then there are the nontrivial psychological factors, namely the fact that we are creatures who have an innate drive to maintain our sense of personal autonomy and control, and for people accustomed and conditioned to doing their own driving the idea of ceding control to a computer (with all the foibles that potentially entails) generates an intolerable level of anxiety. Read between the lines, and you'll see that the majority of the negative responses just on this thread boil-down to some form of apprehension at the thought of surrendering control. In my opinion, the implication is that it will require fundamental changes to the human psyche, probably at an evolutionary level, before this type of autonomy will find widespread acceptance (and it almost certainly won't be accomplished with heavy-handed authoritarianism and mandates).