Re: "...claiming his Tesla S's autopilot had saved his life..."
If you are in Nascar and expecting to be side swiped then yes. For a normal human being on a road doing 60mph then a side swipe like that will be a considerable inconvenience.
You are likely to be thrown into the path of another vehicle or off the highway itself which can easily prove fatal and the average drivers response is also generally going to be to over compensate and start the car fishtailing or go to a full spin. Side wipes are pretty effective at unsettling a car, that's why the cops use them to remove the "bad-guys" from their present tarmac/rubber combination.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
