It's exactly the right connotation for people who know the connotation. I suspect a large fraction of the population thinks that "autopilot" means "no human pilot needed."
It's unreasonable to assume that.
Autopilot is a term most people would he familiar from where? Commercial aviation, right?
I would argue most people know it's not a system that achieves that goal. Just ask yourself. Do you think airline passengers would feel comfortable if a cabin announcement told passengers: Both pilots are going to take a nap now for the next 10 hours.
I do think Tesla should do a better job making sure it's understood that there are limitations. I don't think they need to change the name of the feature because some people claim to have a certain expectation of it which at closer inspection is not justified.
Most people don't learn the term from commercial aviation, they learn they term from movies where someone turns on the "autopilot" then goes to handle whatever is happening at the back of the plane.
I assumed autopilots in planes could actually fly by themselves and the pilots were really only there for take-off, landing and turbulence.
But neither planes nor cars with autopilot + autoland/park functionality are fully autonomous.
The only place where we have this today is on some on rails systems (trains like in Paris, buses on fixed rails like in Tokyo's Yurikamome or some amusement parks, etc.).
That's in the context of an action film though, if people based their ideas on those we would live in a strange world indeed.
Hmmm, actually come to think of it...
Nevertheless it's true. Autopilot as seen in countless movies now means "set it and forget it" to more people than a rudimentary aeronautical cruise control.
"Why do they think that?
It's unreasonable to assume that. Autopilot is a term most people would he familiar from where? Commercial aviation, right?"
When you think of 'most people' - think 'Grade 9 education'.
Swaths of Americans grauduate HS with difficulty reading.
I used to market to retail mobile stores, like Sprint, and store managers had difficulty understanding the concept of 'percentage'.
The lowest common denominator is low, and when it comes to safety ... it's the fool among us (or within us because we all have faults) that is the target.
I think it should just be called 'cruise control' and that's that. Tesla can market it as being 'better' but that's about it.
I cringe every time I hear the term autopilot used in that context.
So the arguments against my comment (and downvotes) so far have been about how people are stupid or how they base their reality on action movie knowledge.
I don't think people are that stupid, really. And I don't think they don't understand that Tesla's autopilot is not a chauffeur.
As I said, I do think Tesla can do a better job and hey they should probably consider a new name just to get this over with, but I simply cannot agree with everyone in all these threads going on and on about the name being at fault.
People would find some other thing to blame if the name were drive assistant or cruise control, as long as Tesla is advertising or wants to advertise the more modern features of it. Say Tesla says it's advanced cruise control doing a, b, and c that others don't provide, people will still blame a, b, or c when those linked with driver neglect cause an accident.
Note, I'm also not saying Tesla is great here and not at fault. If their systems don't do a, b, and c properly or steer you into a concrete wall then it's their fault. But IMO it's just not because it's called autopilot.
What I think instead is that the fact that there is a system that let's people zone out in 90 per cent of traffic without annoying the driver about paying attention is the issue. It really doesn't matter what the name is as long as there are measures in place to keep the driver focused.
I think the whole issue clashes though. It's difficult to have these auto-steering features for comfort but then demand reduced comfort. So bottom line for me is that those systems all aren't ready and the naming is simple a bikeshedding topic because it is easy to attack and also brings put this "people are stupid" superiority feeling in people.
