The difference between a plane and a car is that when a car breaks it becomes a gradually slowing lump, and when a plane breaks it becomes a glider. So while it's possible already to build a plane that can make entire flights on autopilot, you still need to be a pilot to deal with the aviation equivalent of pulling onto the shoulder when something goes wrong.
How about dropping the wings and ejecting a parachute for the whole plane?
= things falling out of the sky in random places.
That didn't work out too well for Cory Lidle. The Cirrus SR20 he was flying had a parachute just like that. The problem with parachutes is that you have to know you're going to crash before you crash. That doesn't always happen.
Now, cars aren't exactly the safest thing, either. I wonder how they match up with the most recent (safest) small planes.