That makes sense. There's a big difference between saying "the parachute might fail and you might die" versus "if the diving instructor doesn't like you he's allowed you disconnect you." It will definitely be interesting to see how it all settles out. By and large I'm confident these will dramatically reduce injuries and deaths but Google is definitely opening itself up to a lot of lawsuits by being the first to try this.
I agree with you about the life-saving features but disagree about the lawsuits. I don't see Google deciding to play "the needs of the many outweigh" because liability law is pretty clearly "take care of your own." So long as the product is acting as advertised to you, to your advantage, they're good. This whole "Google as omnipotent force" aspect of it is a strawman, in my opinion.