This article, like every other that I’ve read on this subject, makes an interesting omission. Yes, pilot error causes accidents. But, how many times, every day, does pilot intervention stop the automatics from doing something silly. Saves are not recorded.
For this to work....no failure of any system or subsystem, either on the aircraft or ground can ever cause the autopilot to disconnect, or even run out of ideas. The autopilot must be able to handle any form of failure. The programmers will have had to thought of every possible contingency, and then all of the impossible ones too. As a simple example, no oxygen bottle had ever exploded in aviation history, but one let go on QF30, and the very first system that it took out was the autopilot(s). All three of them.
Right now, it takes very little for Airbus’s best to lose the plot and revert to lower laws that require manual flight. When this happens these aircraft are much harder to fly than their predecessors. If each of these were to result in an accident, I guarantee that neither you, nor I, would ever set foot on an aircraft again.