This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles. Worldwide, there is a fatality approximately every 60 million miles.
The wording implies that these numbers are directly comparable, but they are not. I would guess that Autopilot is much more likely to be activated in safe situations. But the other statistics include all situtations.
As they say, it's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end.
Not only that, you'd expect drivers in the higher-income demographic of US auto customers to have less fatal accidents.
The real comparison should between a model S and cars like the Mercedes S-Class, since this is all about car marketing anyways.
What? Why?
They also might be more sheltered from the consequences of their actions and likely to be reckless while driving.
Your assumption may even be correct, but I don't think it's obvious.
In the end, the accident rate comparison to the global population is completely wrong.
Which makes it a better comparison to Teslas, really.
http://jalopnik.com/the-tesla-model-s-just-got-upgraded-to-l...
Telsa isn't one of them...