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People don’t get this when you call the feature “Autopilot”.
by dclowd9901 9y ago
People don’t get this when you call the feature “Autopilot”.
- sokoloff 9y agoIt is comparable to an airplane autopilot, but not to the public misconception of an autopilot. An airplane autopilot is another complex control, not another pilot. If I command my autopilot to fly me into terrain or into a thunderstorm, it will do so. If I command it to climb at a vertical speed that the engine power can’t support, it will fly the plane into an aerodynamic stall. If I’m flying on autopilot, I still have to pay close attention and still log pilot time as “sole manipulator of the controls”. If I crash on autopilot, it’s still overwhelmingly [human] “pilot error”, not “autopilot error”. People hear autopilot and incorrectly assume it’s, “Hey George, fly me to LaGuardia and wake me upon landing.”