> I think there's a strong recognition that self-driving vehicles, when they can be made to happen generally, will be a significant social good. And that it's tricky to get there unless society is willing to put something out onto the streets.

I agree autonomous cars hold great potential. But that is precisely why Tesla should not ship a "beta" feature with lives at stake, as that risks squandering that potential. If this is the response to a single Autopilot user killing himself in an accident, imagine the potential backlash if more accidents crop up. Or worse, an Autopilot user kills someone else in an accident.

Critics of Tesla's Autopilot are not only concerned about the danger to Tesla drivers, but to the industry as a whole ("Jaguar engineer: A mishap with Tesla's Autopilot could set back self-driving cars by a decade"): http://mashable.com/2015/12/12/jaguar-semi-autonomy/#QMl5uUB...

Tesla argues that the data it collects from Autopilot users is worth the risk because it can help Tesla develop true self-driving cars faster, but other companies pursuing self-driving cars (including Google) have opted for more controlled testing instead of conducting a grand experiment with customers and the general public.