From The Economist:

A little automation could save lives

TIME and again, evidence shows computer-controlled vehicles have fewer accidents than those driven by people. Still, we have a pathological reluctance to surrender control. We seem to find all-too-frequent deaths caused by human carelessness somehow preferable to the obscure possibility of death by bloodless automaton.

The rail crash on September 12th—America’s deadliest in 15 years—would have been wholly preventable had an electronic controller been allowed to intercede. Instead, a Metrolink commuter train heading north from Los Angeles with 220 people on board collided head-on with a southbound Union Pacific freight train, killing 25 people and injuring 135 more. …