I'm not sure I'd feel safe about convoy driving unless there were some kind of way to manage emergencies (like a tire blowout, engine problem, deer) which under normal circumstances isn't very dangerous because you have a second or two to manoeuver. But in a close convoy system, there is little room for error and even an automated system may be unable to compensate for the emergency in a timely fashion thus resulting in a chain reaction crash --the kind we see in foggy conditions with human drivers.
One option to reduce convoy risk is have cars attach to one another such that no single car can cause a failure in the overall system (similar to trains).
We shouldn't think of automated cars as independent as we do. They are in fact simply compartments.
With that in mind, imagine cars attaching to each other to form trains and break apart as they begin to reach the desired destination.
This also has impacts on fuel efficiency since drag can be reduced across the entire system.
(Cars don't have to be the same model, they just need a formalized attachment system on the front / rear).
Yeah, I think buffers (like in trains) could be an option, maybe magnetic. If it requires physical contact, though, that would mean a whole train of cars (maybe cars would be grouped into sets of ten or so?) would have to speed up and down as cars joined and left the caravan --I know we do this in everyday driving, but it's "softer".
[edit, just thinking, if we knew destination in advance, the first car would be the one going furthest and the last car in the group going the shortest so that the interruption would be inconsequential]
Back to accidents, there will the edge cases. And because it's programmed (and not a human "accident") people might find more fault in the system than they would in a human. So even though accidents and deaths would/could be reduced considerably, those that would occur might be seen as more negligent than accident. Just thinking out loud.
I'm sure that convoy driving is another 15-20 years in the future from the point where self-driving takes off. However it's not like those dangers you mention cannot be managed. Self-driving cars already require a wide array of sensors - together in a convoy you get such an amount of data that the computers should be able to get out of hairy situation at any point.
