The car had an incapacitated driver and no one got hurt! Surely that particular capacity is very relevant here. If all incapacitated drivers had autopilots that drove safely, the world would be a safer place, right?
I really don't understand the resistance to this feature.
It's clear from the steer weight what it's intentions were.
You cannot compare it just with the worst case scenario. The driver, knowing his condition as demonstrated by the weight, could have taken a different form of transport, or none at all.
So you need to compare the pretty high chance of a unsupervised tesla crashing into a highway divider or parked lorry with the other modes of travel safety.
Instead you're picking an anecdote and running wild with it.
But had Autopilot not been available would he have driven? Or would he have taken a taxi?
The problem (IMO) is the promises Tesla is making even with the name “autopilot”. It makes people think it’s a whole lot more capable than it is.
The problem in this instance wasn't the driver misunderstand the capabilities of Autopilot, it was the driver being irresponsible with drugs, fatigue and the installation of a safety defeat device.
It's literally right there on the front page of Tesla's Autopilot site: https://www.tesla.com/autopilot