The CDC reports that every day in the US about 9 people are killed, and more than 1,000 injured due to <i>distracted</i> driving. [1] Annually, over 1 million people die globally in car crashes.<p>Driving is both the source of trillions of dollars of economic value annually, as well as the cause of ~$1 trillion a year in economic damages (including pain, suffering, and loss of life).<p>A focused and alert human is, overall, fairly awesome at driving, even in surprisingly adverse conditions. Humans, however, can also be lazy, easily distracted, and make irresponsible choices.<p>Cars to some extent try to protect humans against making these bad choices (like seat belt warnings) but to other extents respect that humans are not to be subjugated by a machine, and this means even being allowed to make bad decisions.<p>ADAS systems like AutoPilot and Level 3-5 self-driving are the most promising solution to the daily devastation that occurs on our roadways. This is literally a multi-trillion dollar problem. For an ADAS system to be most effective, it must be reliable and predictable, and it <i>also</i> must be easy to use. An ADAS system cannot increase driver safety if the driver turns it off, or won't turn it on because it's too annoying.<p>As a Tesla owner I can definitively state, that the safest way for me to drive is with AutoPilot enabled, with my hands on the wheel, and looking out the damn windows. This is how cars are supposed to be driven, and it's how Tesla consistently tells its drivers to drive the car. While Tesla consistently and repeatedly instructs drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and to remain alert, it doesn't stop humans from taking their focus off the road, just like humans do consistently with or without AutoPilot.<p>My point is basically this; it does not necessarily make driving <i>more safe</i> to make AutoPilot impossible to abuse. The way most drivers that I see on the road are operating their vehicle, it should be illegal to drive <i>without</i> AutoPilot.<p>In short, I think it's important to understand that a technology can literally save lives while still not saving <i>every</i> life. It's a tragedy every time someone dies on the roads, and it will be a miracle when we have technology fully deployed that can prevent 99% of those deaths.<p>[1] - <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/in...</a>