Our local (Boston area) town police blotter always mentions if a Tesla is involved in so much as a bumper-scrape, whereas no other car brand has ever been mentioned even once.
People don't think that way generally about cars where humans have historically been in complete control, because we associate that with our own driving experience and we're conditioned to it. When it comes to a car brand where crashes occur due to autonomous driving that's different.
It's all about timing and the brand.
Apple coming into the car market will have the same media scrutiny as Tesla. There might be 1000s of Toyota motor vehicle accidents weekly, but if there's one involving a Tesla and particularly one driving autonomously, you can bet it will be on the front page.
It's an enormous PR challenge for Apple if one of their cars kills someone, especially in any autonomous mode. They likely won't be about to stop that from happening completely but either way it's still a challenge they will need to deal with.
Finally, Apple historically have not been associated with building high speed vehicles that can kill people. That is an inherent risk if you are entering the market as purely a car maker.
Neither the name or logo of famous car brands got associated or tarnished by tens of thousands killed every year...
Even when some of them ocassionally made a specific "death trap" model or production run, that's simply not how people thinks of them.