When someone can say with a straight face that the passengers of US Airlines flight 1549 and Qantas flight QF32 would be alive without the heroes they had up front.
QF32 is tricky, but I don't see why a computer couldn't have easily landed US Air 1549. It would have known exactly whether it was capable or not of returning to the airport and immediately deciding on an alternative landing location if not. Handling an engine failure during takeoff and landing on water are both textbook training scenarios for all airline pilots, they would surely be handled by any self flying plane designed to operate without a human pilot.
in the NTSB investigation, it appeared that there was literally only about 30 seconds at the outset to evaluate returning, and even then, with immediate returns, pilots were only able to return 7 out of 13 tests. Textbook and theory doesn't always supercede knowledge of the area and novel thinking.
