Calling Self-Driving Cars "Autonomous Vehicles"?

 

On Jan 6th, Waymo issued a press release saying that it is dropping the term "self-driving cars". Here is an excerpt from the press release.

Why you'll hear us saying fully autonomous driving tech from now on

And when we do, you’ll see us using more deliberate language, referring to our fully autonomous driving technology, and no longer referencing “self-driving.”

This is more than just a branding or linguistic exercise. Unfortunately, we see that some automakers use the term “self-driving” in an inaccurate way, giving consumers and the general public a false impression of the capabilities of driver-assist (not fully autonomous) technology.

The funny thing is Wikipedia is saying that a self-driving car is also known as an autonomous vehicle. Please see above. If this is not a branding or linguistic exercise, what is it then?

Are we saying that an autonomous vehicle is safer than a self-driving car? What makes an autonomous vehicle safer than a self-driving car? Instead of talking about the terminology, the focus should be on defining "safety".