I could argue either side of this debate.
On one hand, it seems like an autonomous system should be safer since:
- It won't get road rage.
- It won't fall asleep.
- It won't drive drunk
- It won't focus its attention on a cell phone instead of driving.
On the other hand we have seen:
- An Uber self driving car that detected a pedestrian, but had auto-braking disabled, and had alerts to the safety driver disabled.
- A Boeing aircraft designed to over-ride the pilots when a single angle-of-attack sensor fails,
even with autopilot off, and this was kept secret from the pilots.
- An auto mfgr (Tesla), which claims on its website that its autos have "Full Self-Driving Capability", when they do not:
https://www.tesla.com/modelx/design#autopilot
So as long as we have fools in corporate mgmt, all bets are off.