But aircraft pilots are of course very different from typical car drivers: more educated, much more strenuously vetted -- and much more likely to understand and

But aircraft pilots are of course very different from typical car drivers: more educated, much more strenuously vetted -- and much more likely to understand and act in accord with the caveats you're describing. Regular car drivers? These are the ones yakking on their cell phones, texting, doing conference calls, eating take out -- and falling asleep in droves at the wheel, already. Inasmuch as the distinction between Autopilot and a truly automated control system may be crystal clear to you -- you can be dead sure it won't be, to many of these people.