Is Tesla's Autopilot Safe? Finding Out Demands Better Data

When Venetian merchants hauled the first shipments of a popular Ottoman drink called coffee into 17th century Europe, leaders in the Catholic Church did not exult at the prospect of increased productivity at the bottom of a warm cuppa. So they asked Pope Clement VIII to declare coffee "the bitter invention of Satan." The pontiff, not one to jump to conclusions, had coffee brought before him, sipped, and made the call. "This Satan's drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it," he declared, the (perhaps apocryphal) story goes. Which is all to say: Sometimes, people are so scared of change, they get things very wrong.