Why the Tesla Crash Shouldn't Put the Brakes On Driverless Cars

Electric automaker Tesla is under investigation after what the company says is the first death of a driver using its "Autopilot" mode, which offers a limited form of autonomous driving for highway use. The driver (or was he a "passenger"?–such Brown's death is sure to exacerbate fears over driverless vehicles. But tragically, Brown was likely one of the somewhere around 90 people who died on roads that day and every day in the U.S. It does not have to be this way. To be sure, we are still far from having enough data to conclusively prove the relative safety of driverless cars versus those piloted by humans. But early estimates hold that tens of thousands of lives might be saved thanks to driverless technology.