Self driving cars are better than regular cars in every way. They’re safer as you pointed out. But they’re also better at enabling sprawl and causing congestion, than regular cars have.

It’s controversial but indisputable that building for cars made American cities worse places to inhabit (and, since it’s a focus here: less healthy). Just compare them with most any European city.

In my opinion, self driving cars are part of the Perfect City, but given our car-centric US development, if we don’t implement them carefully, our cities will become objectively worse places to live.