Slow approval of self-driving cars is costing lives

SACRAMENTO – A recent news story gave the anti-self-driving car pearl-clutchers some ammunition, although it was more comical than tragic. In West Hollywood last month, a goofy sidewalk-delivery robot collided with a robotaxi at around at 4 miles per hour. There obviously were no injuries and neither vehicle was damaged, although writers had a field day depicting this as a preview of the coming dystopian war between robots.

Critics of autonomous vehicles, or AVs, can fixate on nonsense if they choose...