I think you may have fallen for the false assumption the title was leading you to. They want you to assume Autopilot only for you to learn it was just a bad driver. Therefore, Tesla is still good.

Do they mention the make of car in the headlines?
Usually not.

Funny thing is, Murdoch's son is on the board of directors at Tesla.

This is the main reason I want to buy a Tesla. It doesn't even need to be in self driving mode, but the Media will report my death to the world just because I was driving a Tesla.
No other car manufacturer can offer this level of post-mortem notoriety.
You never read headlines such as "some nobody dies when his Skoda crashed into a firetruck."
But put Mr Nobody in a Tesla and he's worth reporting about.

Was this done to stop Elon sending a submarine and calling the rescuers 'a bunch of pedos'?

The best way I've heard it described is, they are dead when outside a cell, alive when inside.

I've always thought that the UK is about 5 - 10 years behind the US in term if behaviour. I can see partianship identity building up here, fuelled by news papers such as The Daily Mail and The Express radicalising their readers. I'm not sure we'll see riots (we're too lazy, it's cold and there's always something on the TV worth watching), but I fear the negativity and obstruction between fellow citizens over political preferences. It's already happening on news forums. It will soon break out into real life.

I suspect the fact that it wasn't controversial is exactly why it took so long to get it published. Read or listen to the book "making the world add up" by Tim Harford to see how ridiculous the peer review process can be.

Listen to How to Make the World Add Up by Tim Harford on Audible. https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/1405543000?source_code=ASSOR150021921000V