[nolemurs]

I feel like this angle is massively overplayed in articles about autonomous vehicles.

Is automation paradox a real issue? Absolutely. But at present, all the evidence seems to indicate that the people automated cars will save far outnumber the people they will kill.

Focusing on the dangers is alarmist and misleading. The 737 crash is a good example really - I've never heard anyone with experience in the field suggest anything other than that the automation makes planes safer. Focusing instead on the fact that the automation isn't perfectly safe only makes sense if you're a media company looking to scare people.

[jedberg]

I don't think it's overplayed at all. It gives people a false sense of a security when they have automation that works 99% of the time. Look at all the people who think that Teslas can drive themselves. Most of the time they are fine, but then they are lulled into a false sense of security. Sure, they get a ton of warnings, but you start to ignore the warnings when it keeps working most of the time.

Heck, my car has adaptive cruise control, and I already find myself wandering sometimes, assuming that it will slam on the brakes if someone gets in front of me. And I'm well aware of the automation paradox and its dangers.

[nolemurs]

The issue I have is that when people talk about the dangers of automation they never compare them to the dangers of non-automated driving. They always make it sound as if automation is making things more dangerous.

The current evidence suggests that semi-autonomous cars are on balance safer than purely human driven cars. The evidence isn't conclusive, but I've literally seen no evidence presented to support the case that semi-autonomous cars are more dangerous - at best I've seen people argue that we can't yet trust the safety claims. Teslas have been on the road long enough now and in large enough numbers that if they were really more dangerous than non-semi-autonomous cars, I think we'd have seen some non-anecdotal evidence by now.

The reasonable presentation of the issue would be "semi-autonomous vehicles likely make people safer, but there are still dangers and people should pay attention."

Instead, the story you're telling is "Tesla drivers are dying, semi-autonomous cars are dangerous, and you should be scared."

You must see how this is misleading at best, and likely downright counterproductive from an overall safety point of view.