(If someone feels strongly such a phenomenon does not exist and we find a good way to gather broader evidence, we could set up a bet, going to a charity of the winner's choice.)

I'm pretty sure that phenomenon does exist, but it seems unlikely to me that that's what's going on in this case.

People who don't want autonomous cars because they deem them unsafe, or because they prefer to drive their SUVs themselves, would not mind taking away the rights of others to use them.

You realize that cars can kill/injure people other than their drivers?