Tesla and Waymo should learn from '24 air crashes

If you yearn for a future where you can travel from place to place in safety and comfort, some of the major transport events of 2024 might feel like a setback.

Don't give up hope.

The crash of Jeju Air flight 2216 on December 29, killing all but two of the 181 on board, and the death of 38 four days earlier when Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8243 was apparently being erroneously targeted by Russian anti-aircraft weapons, helped give the year the worst death toll in commercial aviation since 2018.

It was a similar situation on the ground. For a decade, autonomous driving has promised to bring aviation's normally enviable safety record to the world's roads. Last year it seemed to hit a roadblock—or at least halted in front of a harmless plastic bag and caused a traffic jam, as one confused Chinese robotaxi did earlier this year.