I fail to see how completely automating an aircraft would make flight inherently safer. A computer is capable of conducting a flight from A to B with extreme accuracy and can be programmed to avoid typical hazards en route. Big problems occur if the computer loses the ability to extract meaningful data from remote sensors, or data lines to control mechanisms are severed. As a last resort, a human being can look out the window and potentially still navigate and land safely.
What might work would be a ground based system programmed with every known accident and failure mechanism to date in all known aircraft. If such a system could be programmed and built, it might identify common design failures and potential faults that have not yet occurred and identify potential defects in aircraft yet to be built.
If a fault or series of conditions are identified that no human pilot could deal with but a computer could, then it would be easiest to set up an on board computer to assist the pilot when the situation required. Something Airbus seems to have been struggling to get right for some years.