A safety future: Self driving cars to fix reduce number of fatalities due to road accidents

I have read an article where a NHTSA rep was suggesting that self driving cars may offer the answer to reduce significantly the number of fatalities...
Same person also noted that too much technology in the newer cars force some drivers to take their eyes from the road while trying to keep up with the information from the systems. This is fine if you take your eyes as you are stopped at a light.
But if you stare like a jerk for several seconds because you cant get to that menu or its just hard to keep up, many many things can happen in that time span.
So here is what I struggle with: how easily we run to adopt a "fix" we barely understand the implications of what it takes to make it operational and reliable enough to place your health/life in its "hands". And put pressure on manufacturers to deliver.
How about the things we can do now? Today?
Google gets its traffic information from mobile phones. How hard it is to inactivate message sending when its obvious its from a moving vehicle?
Any ideas?