WSJ Tesla AutoPilot Expose (Paywall)
 

Not strictly aviation, but representative of automation challenges...

BLUF: Lot's of fatalities and NHTSA data is held close due to being "proprietary".

In theory, drivers are supposed to keep their hands on the wheel and pay attention, but of course the marketing implies otherwise and the practical reality is that people text, surf the net, watch movies, sleep, anything other than actually drive.

It works just well enough to lead "drivers" to develop a false sense of security.


https://www.wsj.com/video/series/tes...d=hp_lead_pos7

Just like the Cirrus CAPS BRS parachutee system.

Better than the drivers I observe every day playing with their phones with no autopilot system.

That is the key question. The Tesla has software driven accidents but they are significantly fewer than cars driven manually. The problem is that if you own a manually driven car and cause a accident you are at fault. If you own a Tesla and a accident happens it's always the Tesla's fault and the attornies swarm like starving Hyenas to a dead Wildabeast! In the end Attornies will decide if full self driving cars become a reality. It will not be which is safer.
It should be added that Tesla has excellent collision avoidance software even if autopilot or FSD are not in use. If I had teenage kids driving today they would be in a Tesla.

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.