Tally so far:
Human error caused auto crashes: 156,494,896
GPS/AutoPilot crashes: 1

It is easy to be alarmist, but statistically your chances are way better with automated navigation than by your own hand, just like flying. But in both those examples it's out of our control, so we'd like to think we would do better than a computer. Sometimes yes, most times no.

edit: 156,495,106 since 5 mins ago

Nope, You would need to distribute/divide those (total)numbers by miles driven to be meaningful.

1.08 death per 100 million miles driven (2014): http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/overview-of-fatality-facts

Tesla - about 100 million miles driven by customers, now 1 fatality, Tesla reveals new details of its Autopilot program: 780M miles of data, 100M miles driven and more | Electrek

So statistically, about the same with automated navigation. Unless you consider most of us above average ;)

Edit: remove drunk drivers, and/or other human "preventable" causes of accidents, and humans drivers would be statisticlly safer.

To prevent future drivers dozing off the system should be designed so that they should remain in control, and the car should only take over if it senses an emergency that the driver has failed to respond to, and each instance of system intervention should be logged and the data collected against the driver's license. Too many interventions and bye bye license.

I've seen a tesla driver reading a book on the I17. On you tube you can see people taking a nap.
But good idea nevertheless...

Keeping the hands (or one hand) on the wheel should remain "mandatory", not every invention is a good invention!

Is it possible that the car's radar saw the clear space underneath the broadside trailer, and didn't recognize it as a threat. Maybe the system needs to be adjusted to scan for thing 4'-5' off the road surface as threats also.

But how many of those Tesla-driven miles were using autopilot? A very small fraction, I would guess.

On a semi-related not, I was putting gas in my truck yesterday, and a Tesla Roadster pulls up to the next pump! That was a first!
The driver then pulled his small gas can for his lawn mower out of the trunk.

Does your government subsidize electric lawn mowers? (They don't where I live, they also don't subsidize electric cars) That may be why he's still using a gas powered one. :)

ya don't fly an airplane on autopilot and leave the cockpit to take a nap or a dump.
just like a car that can drive itself, an airplane can t/o & land itself. But the pilot/pilots are suppoda monitor all aspects of the operation and are prepaired to take over and fly the damn thing if the autopilot gets crazy go nut. Auto flight has been around a long time but it do f/u on accasion. The mentality of everyday car drivers are in no way prepaired for anything

I'm not a programmer just a lowly service tech (sort of) but yeah, if computers were infallible I wouldn't have a job (been doing this for about 20 years and no sign of my job going away)

In the history of bad ideas automated cars are a really really bad idea (IMHO)

it is 'Driver Assist' not 'Auto-pilot'.

Thats a play on words... "that depends on what the meaning of is..is"

If the Tesla is using "radar" then why would the color of the truck matter. If the Tesla is using a optical "radar", then the color might matter. Regardless, it's a mistake to think you are driving a car from the Jetsons. I feel so sorry for the driver and his family.

Here's a fun fact; seat-belted drivers take more driving risks than when not seatbelted.

Same goes for say, how hard linebackers hit when the amount of their (safety) gear goes up/improves.

IOW, it's human nature to take more risks when there is the proverbial net under the high-wire, than when not.

This Tesla software[alleged] death was akin to putting a net under the high-wire. ...a net made of silly-string. The user thought, oh, I have technology on my side. I will happily move along, knowing the net is there for me.

A double-fault catastrophe. :-\

No, they are two very different modes of operation.

Auto-pilot implies the car is completely in control, on the Tesla it is clear (or it's supposed to be clear) that the driver is supposed to pay attention and be ready to over-ride the what the car is doing.

The news report mentioned the truck driver saying he heard a Harry Potter movie playing when he got out to go check on the Tesla driver. Not sure if I believe that because I thought NHTSA didn't allow videos to be played in a vehicle within the field of view of the driver.

Regardless, it is terribly sad.

This is key - calling it autopilot may have been smart marketing, but driver assist would be the correct word, so people understand the car adds a layer of assistance to the driver, not vice versa.

What is problematic IMHO is now self driving cars get a bad rep because of this. Other high line manufacturers have emergency braking assist as well as Tesla, they just don't market it aggressively as "auto" anything.

G

And that's all you need to know.

Next topic.

Both of these nail it. Impossible to program a computer to anticipate and react to every variable that might ever present itself in every situation, it simply isn't possible without some variety of AI. So at that point, every accident is the responsibility of the automaker. I think liability, not technology, will ultimately be the limiting factor for automated cars.

I would venture to say that owning a Tesla is probably out of reach for the masses.

That being said, a new Subaru with "Eyesight" is much more affordable.

And if you want the Subaru "Eyesight" technology, you'd better try it out first. My older brother down in New Orleans recently bought a new Outback with the "Eyesight" equipment. He found out that the "safety" of the system came with issues. For example, if someone cut in front of him on the highway it would hit the brakes. If someone were in the exit lane adjacent to him and they were slowing down, his car would slow down as well. It looks down the road quite a ways and adjusts your speed to the traffic speed. Then the final deal breaker, the rear corner "sensor" unit failed. Took it to the dealership. They asked him if he was on a certain bypass in New Orleans at a certain spot. Exactly. They then informed him that he certainly wasn't the first to have the issue in that same location. About 6 months in and he traded it for an Audi.