The worst case scenario of driving a car is meeting a drunken or sleepy driver and dying in the resulting crash. This happens thousands of times every year and seems to be an acceptable risk. I don't understand why a technology with large economic damage as the worst case scenario would be less acceptable.
There are scenarios, where a nuclear accident has a damage that makes living in that area impossible for a long time. Then you don't even have a choice whether you want to drive or not. The people of Prypjat had to leave and the region there is uninhabitable for the next 300 years. There are very few car crashes in that area.