Self driving machine code is inherently unsafe, as we don't have observability for the neural networks that run the most advanced models. The safety critical portion of the code focuses around running the base functions of the car.
One of the major hurdles to real Level 5 systems is proving their correctness.
> The safety critical portion of the code focuses around running the base functions of the car.
There's the rub. They don't meet the standards of safety-critical code, but they are safety critical.
I'm not sure how this challenge will be addressed, but I doubt the answer is "write everything in C". That approach works when your code is relatively simple, but doesn't scale when the code is actually extremely complex.
One of the major hurdles to real Level 5 systems is proving their correctness.