Two things that people are horrible at reasoning about, probably for biological reasons: Really massive numbers. Really really small numbers.
It only gets worse when you throw in something emotionally charged, like risk. Humans are absolutely awful at evaluating risk rationally.
Consider the standard HN example of robotic cars that are safer by an order or magnitude or two than human-piloted cars. The first time somebody will be killed by a robotic car (and it will happen eventually) the public will be calling for heads on a platter, even though the robotic cars are safer than human-piloted cars that kill hundreds every day.
Personally I cannot wait for my own robot car, so much free time will be given back to me.
However the irrationality that comes into play with a robot car killing a human means that the creators of such cars are going to go above and beyond to do what they can to prevent it. By virtue of human irrationality we get safer robot cars.
It only gets worse when you throw in something emotionally charged, like risk. Humans are absolutely awful at evaluating risk rationally.
Consider the standard HN example of robotic cars that are safer by an order or magnitude or two than human-piloted cars. The first time somebody will be killed by a robotic car (and it will happen eventually) the public will be calling for heads on a platter, even though the robotic cars are safer than human-piloted cars that kill hundreds every day.