> Self-driving vehicles need aircraft-type maintenance.

That's a hyperbolic false equivalence.

Aircraft typically carry hundreds of people and can crash to the ground. As long as a self-driving car can detect when it is degraded, it can just stop with the blinkers on. Usually with 0 - 2 people inside.

> Aircraft typically carry hundreds of people and can crash to the ground.

Cars are more numerous and could spontaneously either plow into pedestrians, or rear-end someone, causing chain damage and, quite often, a spillage of toxic chemicals (e.g., a cistern carrying acid/fuel/pesticide).

Plus, you have a problem of hostile actors having easier access to cars compared to planes.

The question is how broken can a car be when dispatched. What's the safe floor? See the other article today about a Tesla getting into an accident because of undetected sensor degradation.