I think that is an incredibly misleading statistic. For it to be comparable to human driving, autopilot needs to be turned on all the time, no exceptions. I think most people only turn on autopilot under ideal road conditions, so you would need to compare the human driver accident rate under perfect highway road conditions.

Well that's not realistic... yet.

But it would be interesting to see how safe people are without autopilot in similar close to ideal conditions with a close to ideal car.

You hit the nail on the head, it isn't a fair comparison. I suspect autopilot is largely used under 'safe' and ideal conditions, and as a glorified lane-assist/cruise-control feature. You add complexity, and things deteriorate. This is why Tesla had to severely pull back on their initial claims after several high-profile crashes due to driver inattentiveness, and you need only to watch Tesla navigating a parking lot with it's 'smart summon' feature to see we have ways to go still.

And you're correct, driver demographics are important as well. How does Tesla's autopilot safety record stack up to the record of other drivers of luxury cars? Luxury cars will tend to have, for example, proper tires for the season. The one accident I was involved in resulted from the other driver not having winter tires and rear-ending me at a red-light. So is it the autopilot that is responsible for the improved safety stats, or 'dumb' companion features, like a built-in blind-spot warning, and a properly maintained vehicle.

Also, though human rate of accident is on the order of 1 per 500,000 miles, the fatality rate is on the order of 1 per hundreds of millions of miles -> how does Tesla compare to that? Reducing minor accidents is important, but it isn't the primary consideration.

It's clear, this is a misleading marketing number. Don't trust the Tesla autopilot to drive you around safely without your full attention - that's not me saying - that's Tesla saying it.

I use autopilot everday on my 50 mile one way commute. This statistic is so misleading. Autopilot is used while i ride in the HOV lane for 45 miles of that commute. Autopilot including Navigate on Autopilot can't get me to cut across 5 lanes of traffic in under 1 mile or do the city driving where i am 10x more likely to get in a car accident.

Autopilot has caused me more near-misses than it has prevented. And I only use it on the highway.

The statistic would be more useful if 1) only compared to similar driving conditions, and 2) driver is not allowed to intervene. As long as the human is there to save things when autopilot goes pear-shaped, it's impossible to say how safe autopilot really is.

Surely some of those autopilot miles involved drunks, so they shouldn't be excluded entirely.

Indeed, but likely at a lower rate than the general public. In any case the general idea is to find as fair a comparison as possible with the Tesla published numbers.

I suspect $60k BMW owners driving on the highways in good weather are much safer per mile than random folks in random cars on random roads in random weather.

while I generally agree with your point, that new cars with great braking, enhanced safety and in perfect technical conditions are safer than average, I'm not entirely convinced if BMW is the right make for this kind of examples

edit: typo

Heh, ok, pick any luxury car priced similarly to the Tesla.

It's odd that so many of the comments on the self driving threads make this assumption that drivers of expensive cars are safer than drivers of inexpensive cars. It is just part of the classist bias that attaches virtue to wealth? Or is there some data that suggests that a Mercedes driver is a better driver than a Kia driver?

It's a combination of things. For instance drivers are statistically more likely to have accidents at 18 than 50. Drivers are more likely to have an expensive car than 50 than 18. Being less financially secure often means you are trying to keep an old junker with crappy brakes going when young.

Also risky behavior like speeding, DUI, driving aggressively, passing when unsafe, etc are generally more common when young.

Sure individuals vary, but just look at the cost of insurance to verify.

BMW drivers are stereotypical bad...

I don't know of data, but the high cost of a Mercedes over a Kia means that the average driver is likely to be older and young drivers are a known risk factor in accidents.

Do BMWs have a bad safety track record?

I believe the parent poster is referring to the stereotype that BMW drivers have an aggressive and selfish driving style, and that they never use their indicators/blinkers.