Taking one argument for horribly bad designed "smart devices" (the current generation of smart watches) and applying it to a different field altogether (airplanes and cars) is absolute utter bollocks.<p>First of all, most of all civil aviation disasters in history have been caused by human error[0] (or, in at least 4 incredibly famous examples, human intention). Yes, humans have lost their lives to technology failing, but the assertion that the pilots always are able to do something if they had just been more aware and given control of the dozens of subsystems that a commercial jet controls behind the scenes is rather ridiculous. The "Shit Happens" factor exists for any level of technology.<p>Or the idea that human beings can react faster than a computer can in the one or two seconds of a car accident. The same car that is able to detect the fact you're trying to leave your lane when you accidentally fall asleep at the wheel and try to wake you up or keep you in lane, the same car that is able to fire airbags in the milliseconds after a major deceleration or impact event. The same car that prevents your brakes from locking up and tries to prevent your car from hydroplaning when you decide to speed over that puddle of water because you're late and speed limits are just a government ploy or some other bogus Libertarian rationale.<p>People will die driving in self-driving cars. This will happen some time in the future - it's an inevitability. But it is incredibly difficult to believe that figure will be anywhere near the scale of the ~35,000 automotive deaths per year in the United States we average now.<p>If we take the obviously huge leap to compare air travel's legendary reliability thanks in a big part to autopiloting, equipment redundancy, regular inspections and maintenance, and so forth to self-driving cars, we'd believe the deaths to be on the order of 35 or less a year. Cars may never be that reliable due to other factors (like all of the vehicles being on the same plane of travel), but it's still far more likely to be an overall win.<p>Yes, progress in technology is a horrible, horrible thing. Let's just put our heads back into the dirt and pretend it isn't happening.<p>[0]: <a href="http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm</a>, because everyone always asks for citations instead of spending two seconds to search for themselves.