Your last paragraph is the most important one. Autopilot is driver assistance, and it shouldn't be a surprise that it helps. But these results are comparing human + computer vs human, and does not in anyway indicate that the computer alone is better than a human, let alone a human + computer, which should be the benchmark.
I agree these numbers only argue for human+computer vs human, and not computer vs human.
I'm curious why you think the benchmark should be computer vs human, though. Autopilot is very clearly a human+computer system; it states you need to be alert, and it forces you to keep your hands on the wheel and apply wheel torque occasionally to make sure you're actually paying attention. Why would Tesla benchmark something they don't ship (and how could they even do that)? The question for the general public, and for Tesla owners, is whether the current system is safe. It appears to be.
Theae stats are often quoted by Musk and Tesla to suggest that driverless cars are here and safer than human drivers, and the only thing preventing them are regulators. They are never quoted to imply that driver assistance makes driving safer, which i believe they would.
So, one has to compare computer vs human. In fact, more than that. One cannot compare modern technology to one from the previous century. So one must compare computer to the best passive driver assistance that one can develop for humans. So Tesla must compare a driverless solution to their own driver assistance solutions aiding drivers, and not the "average car on the road"
> Theae stats are often quoted by Musk and Tesla to suggest that driverless cars are here and safer than human drivers, and the only thing preventing them are regulators.
That's surprising, I hadn't seen that. Could you link to an example?
Yeah, and in the part of that second link that directly addresses the question:
> *Will the FSD Computer make my car fully autonomous?*
> Not yet. All Tesla cars require active driver supervision and are not autonomous. With the FSD Computer, we expect to achieve a new level of autonomy as we gain billions of miles of experience using our features. The activation and use of these features are dependent on achieving reliability far in excess of human drivers, as well as regulatory approval, which may take longer in some jurisdictions.
That clearly states that there is still a technical challenge to overcome which is prior to any regulatory issues.
