Yes, human drivers break all or most of the liability chain to the deep pockets. Insurance pays to the limit, and then the driver is on the hook for anything above that in the rare case where they actually have any assets. Ambulance chasers will do their best to find fault with the deep pockets... if a drunk driver does 85 in a school zone and kills some kids, the lawyers will try to claim that the brake design was faulty from the mfg. When that doesn't work, they'll try to blame the local dealer for not maintaining the brakes, etc, etc

But as you say, autonomy establishes a direct liability link to the mfg (deep pockets).

IMO the only way autonomous road vehicles will work is if:

a) The roads are redesigned to be perfectly consistent, and exclude unpredictable factors such as bikes, pedestrians, animals, and non-autonomous drivers. This could happen over the course of a century or so.

Or

b) The US congress legislatures specific tort reform for the sole purpose and benefit of allowing the autonomous car industry to get on with it. It would have to be federal, to force it down the throats of the various states. Politically this seems hard, because Mom isn't going to be placated when they tell her it's OK that an autonomous vehicle blew through a school crossing and killed little Billy because statistically the autonomy saved two other lives somewhere else in the US.