> I think it's a completely reasonable position that companies making self-driving cars and question/answer systems are legally liable for any errors.

Well, for cars anyway, the manufacturer was always liable for the car doing something wrong (example: driver changes the volume on the radio, and that disables the brakes).

It's just that techbros want an exception to this rule if the car is self-driving.

I see no reason for an exception to this rule.