how could it ever be better than the human drivers it learns from
Not that I trust these systems too much yet, I do see why they can be better:
Reaction time - can break and/or steer much fast than a human
Awareness - can see “everything” all at once
Never tired, influenced or disturbed
What they lean from humans is not just how to handle different situations but also lean from human mistakes
The fact that there are 2 billion drivers world wide (my own made up number) that needs to learn from the ground up and get better with all the falls humans brings to the table, but the car is just one AI (maybe there are more) that needs to be fine tuned to be the best
But as you say, the AI is still putting out weird things once in a while, and maybe the next big painting on the side of a truck makes the AI drive over into incoming traffic…