Techies are a very narrow band in any of these gradients.

Regular people are very wide bands, and there's a reason horror sci-fi movies where robots kill humankind are extremely popular.

You're both right and wrong at the same time. The media gets to decide, as always, what we're collectively outraged about. Or to be more specific, the people who control the media. So if you want to predict if people are going to care when someone gets killed by a robocar, it depends on who stands to make or lose money if they do or don't.