I would expect nowadays you could fairly trivially produce near life-like footage and allow self driving cars to 'play a video game' that tests tens of thousands of situations as a pre-requisite for certification.

The great thing about computer generated test cases is you don't need real footage of every hypothetical awful thing that could happen i.e. a truck losing control and rolling over sideways. These could be a stage 1 test -- a pre-requisite to real testing. Like the hazards test before you are allowed to sit the drive test with a real drive test employee [1] to make sure you're not a retard.

[1]: https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/~/media/images/licences/hpt_...

That may lead to algorithms being optimized for the “video game” instead of real life.

Next step is you put the system on a test track where you throw a wide variety of cases at it.

What happens if it uses lidar (or any other sensor)? I don’t think it’s easy.

Airplane certification uses a combination of simulator exercises and real world flying through prescribed maneuvers.

Mumble mumble Dieselgate.