There are some situations where it’s great, but those features make the driver feel a false sense of security. Let the people feel like they’re entirely responsible so they’re more careful.
For example, widening the roads in the suburbs used to seem like a great idea - more space, less accidents, right? But that’s untrue. Narrower streets with trees blocking visibility on the sides are actually safer because the driver is forced to be more aware [1] [2].
Another good example is road markings and street/stop signs. Surely, having street signs and lane markings is safer right? Well, this is early on, but at least on city streets, it appears that’s not true either. [3] [4]
Now, to your point, it does appear that automatic car safety systems do make cars safer right now [5]. But those types of things are pretty new, so I wonder how long it’ll be until they have the same fate as those other safety innovations of the past. Where taking them away will make driving safer because people feel personally responsible, so they drive slower.
All of your points are valid, and seem to be backed up by data, but only apply to urban driving.
In my opinion, the majority of the benefit from safety tech is in parking lots or the highway. You don't need blind spot monitoring or adaptive cruise control on a stop-and-go single lane city street. These features only make sense cruising at highway speed or pulling out of a parking spot.
It's possible that ""full"" self driving cars will make drivers feel less responsible in the cities. I think the transition to genuinely autonomous cars is going to be slow and painful regardless.
There are some situations where it’s great, but those features make the driver feel a false sense of security. Let the people feel like they’re entirely responsible so they’re more careful.
For example, widening the roads in the suburbs used to seem like a great idea - more space, less accidents, right? But that’s untrue. Narrower streets with trees blocking visibility on the sides are actually safer because the driver is forced to be more aware [1] [2].
Another good example is road markings and street/stop signs. Surely, having street signs and lane markings is safer right? Well, this is early on, but at least on city streets, it appears that’s not true either. [3] [4]
Now, to your point, it does appear that automatic car safety systems do make cars safer right now [5]. But those types of things are pretty new, so I wonder how long it’ll be until they have the same fate as those other safety innovations of the past. Where taking them away will make driving safer because people feel personally responsible, so they drive slower.
[1] https://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/2015/06/14/studies...
[2] https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/narrow-streets-are-safest
[3] https://gizmodo.com/this-street-has-no-lanes-signals-or-sign...
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/22/world/europe/a-path-to-ro...
[5] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/car-insurance/vehicle-safety-...