If at 100' on the approach the aircraft has an engine failure due to bird strike the computer will assumedly do what the F/O in Ciampino did , and initiate a go-around. When, several seconds later the second engine calls it a day, will it have the experience to "modify" an approach sufficiently to land on the rapidly vanishing runway ? ? as the Capt did
The statistician would say that even if the computer crashes the aircraft in that (demonstrably very rare) instance, ON AVERAGE it will perform better by not making all the other types of mistakes that are attributable to human error. A programmer would say that his computer can quite easily switch into a different subroutine if the second donk quits, just as the Captain allegedly did in the incident you refer to. It's not rocket science - with no power the aircraft looks for the safest place to land (and is quite capable of landing on a road or in a field if necessary, avoiding the obstructions that the panicked pilot simply hasn't the capacity to account for - it even knows it will miss the power lines or stop before the hedge).
The trick of course will be to convince the public that the aircraft is safe, even though once in a while it will throw its hands up and go "tilt". The fact that it doesn't in the other 95% of cases (whereas human pilots do statistically) in theory will make pilotless aircraft safer. Of course the kit will need to be there on the ground and this will mean that many destinations would be unsuitable at least at first, but certainly on the major European routes between capitals for example it seems a likely scenario in 15-20 years.
There seems to be an inherent line here that computers can't assimilate as many inputs as a human can, but the fact is that they can do this now and have been able to do this for decades. They can also assess situations and review a thousand outcomes from a scenario in a millisecond. All that is missing is the ability to program the code the way a pilot thinks. Once significant resources are directed to this task (if they aren't already being so directed) ALL aircraft will in theory eventually have the brain of the most experienced Captain that ever lived.
Yes it will take time, but to say it won't ever happen is absurd.