TL; DR version: we need to put a lot more focus on making drivers safer.
The bit with safer cars just rubs me the wrong way. A lot of the safety features mandated by the government can be annoying, and that's the least of the worries.
I don't think of it as an either this or that - we clearly need both safer cars and better drivers. Better drivers will help reduce accidents, but we will never actually have perfect drivers. Human errors will continue to happen. Even if we had perfect drivers who never did mistakes accidents would still happen for other reasons. So I agree better drivers are important, but I also think it is only part of the solution. The cars themselves can help with (sensible!) active systems to prevent accidents in the first place, and good protection if accidents do happen.
I think mandated safety measures like seat belt, airbags and crash tests have proven themselves. What I don't agree with are these new smart functions who actually don't always work. For instance in the EU new cars are now required to have a lane following feature which will try to steer you back if it thinks you are going the wrong way. This is the most horrible smurf thing ever in winter conditions - it mistakes ice edges, snow tracks and who knows what as lanes. And thus it might randomly decide to try and steer you left or right at its own sudden whim. If you have oncoming traffic or very slippery conditions the last thing you need is for the car to start steering off in odd directions. I'm quite certain this "safety" feature has caused accidents and will continue to do so - it probably works fine on well marked tarmac roads (near the legislators), but they made it a requirement everywhere..
You can turn if off, but it only stays off until you turn the car on again. Then it will be back on again. I believe all cars sold after 2021 or 2022 is required to have this madness.
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