3 ms·

No it doesn’t but maybe most people think that’s exactly what it means...

Fricken 9y ago
I'm gonna need something better than myth and superstition to buy into this meme that autopilot users don't understand what autopilot is/isn't capable of because of how it is named.
King-Aaron 9y ago
What you're starting to edge towards, then, is an educational issue. Personally I feel the only time I've seen an 'autopilot' shown as a fully autonomous system was in the 1980's film Airplane! I couldn't narrow down exactly where in life I learned about autopilot systems in aircraft, but I always considered it to be common sense that autopilot doesn't mean "can completely fly itself"
- carlmr 9y ago
  The media is constantly bringing together the terms autopilot, and driverless or self-driving cars. There's definitely the suggestion that the driver is completely unnecessary. You can't expect the average Joe to look this up. It should clearly be marked as beta and dangerous without supervision. Also Tesla says so themselves: >All Tesla vehicles produced in our factory, including Model 3, have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than...
  - chc 9y ago
    AFAIK Autopilot is clearly marked as a beta and displays a dialog reminding you of that when you activate it in your car. And "full self-driving capability" is not a reference to Autopilot — it's saying that Tesla eventually plans to implement full self-driving (as a separate feature) and the car includes hardware that will allow you to enable it with just a software upgrade.
    - jonathankoren 9y ago
      Marking something as beta is a bullshit CYA move. If it was truly a beta test, it wouldn't be in wide public release. A car is not a web app. It just isn't. This behavior literally wouldn't fly at say Boeing, or anywhere else that makes machines people's trust their lives to.
- pwinnski 9y ago
  I think the big problem is that "autopilot" in a small plane just means "fly in the same direction at the same height and speed" like cruise control, but the big commercials jets absolutely can and do take off and land themselves, technically requiring zero input from a pilot at any point in the flight. I think more people are aware of the second point than the first, and that's why the common perception of "autopilot" is more about level-5 driving than cruise control

I'm gonna need something better than myth and superstition to buy into this meme that autopilot users don't understand what autopilot is/isn't capable of because of how it is named.

King-Aaron 9y ago

What you're starting to edge towards, then, is an educational issue. Personally I feel the only time I've seen an 'autopilot' shown as a fully autonomous system was in the 1980's film Airplane! I couldn't narrow down exactly where in life I learned about autopilot systems in aircraft, but I always considered it to be common sense that autopilot doesn't mean "can completely fly itself"

carlmr 9y ago
The media is constantly bringing together the terms autopilot, and driverless or self-driving cars. There's definitely the suggestion that the driver is completely unnecessary. You can't expect the average Joe to look this up. It should clearly be marked as beta and dangerous without supervision. Also Tesla says so themselves: >All Tesla vehicles produced in our factory, including Model 3, have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than...
- chc 9y ago
  AFAIK Autopilot is clearly marked as a beta and displays a dialog reminding you of that when you activate it in your car. And "full self-driving capability" is not a reference to Autopilot — it's saying that Tesla eventually plans to implement full self-driving (as a separate feature) and the car includes hardware that will allow you to enable it with just a software upgrade.
  - jonathankoren 9y ago
    Marking something as beta is a bullshit CYA move. If it was truly a beta test, it wouldn't be in wide public release. A car is not a web app. It just isn't. This behavior literally wouldn't fly at say Boeing, or anywhere else that makes machines people's trust their lives to.
pwinnski 9y ago
I think the big problem is that "autopilot" in a small plane just means "fly in the same direction at the same height and speed" like cruise control, but the big commercials jets absolutely can and do take off and land themselves, technically requiring zero input from a pilot at any point in the flight. I think more people are aware of the second point than the first, and that's why the common perception of "autopilot" is more about level-5 driving than cruise control