No, this is not pedantic. An autopilot is a complex system that needs full time management. It looks like this [1], and you need to correctly twiddle the dials

No, this is not pedantic. An autopilot is a complex system that needs full time management. It looks like this [1], and you need to correctly twiddle the dials every few minutes to get the plane to do what you want. It's not a button, it doesn't avoid traffic, and it doesn't know about the broader flight plan. Even fancy autopilots that can follow waypoints and intercept a localizer and autoland and all that - managing them looks more like programming a crappy computer than pressing a button. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot#/media/File%3AFMS_B747-cockpit.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot#/media/File%3AFMS_...