Or if the R&D phase kills so many people the public loses faith in the whole idea ... then you get to wait a generation for people to forget

Why don't we see if anything like that happens before just assuming it will? The precautionary principle is a recipe for eternal stagnation.

R&D would have to be killing 30,000*%oftheirvehicles per year.

We're talking about perception. Regardless, Tesla won't release the data per mile driven and seems to be dodging reporting regulations -- if not daring regulators to respond.

Feels to me like amateurs (backed by a small army) confidently building bridges and daring the community to try and stop them. (Except Tesla's army are fan boys, lobbyists, and lawyers.) So basically speed running a millennium of civil engineering, except ignoring the more expensive safety controls; like LIDAR.