3 ms·

Can we please, please stop with the whole "Autopilot is so misleading thing". Tesla's Autopilot is more sophisticated and feature-rich than any other autopilot

Can we please, please stop with the whole "Autopilot is so misleading thing". Tesla's Autopilot is more sophisticated and feature-rich than any other autopilot (i.e. in an airplane) that you've ever experienced.

adrr 6y ago
I can go to sleep on a boats autopilot system. On plane autopilot, I can take my hands off the controls and start filling out landing forms.
- rantwasp 6y ago
  you can also do this in a Tesla with the difference that you may make the news /s
seoaeu 6y ago
Can we get over this trope of "autopilot doesn't mean self driving." Everybody knows what normal people mean by autopilot. And even if they didn't, introducing the new "Full Self-Driving" terminology seems to me to have a pretty unambiguous meaning.
- fastball 6y ago
  I don't know a single person that thinks planes are entirely flying themselves without pilot intervention? Not gonna lie you have a very dim view of "normal people". Clearly you do not believe planes are entirely flying themselves, so I'm wondering who these "normal people" are that you are speaking for.
rantwasp 6y ago
i disagree. you don’t get the name autopilot just because you are doing something sophisticated. autopilot in a plane is a true autopilot as it truly controls the plane. in fact apart from takeoff and landing most of the flying is done by the autopilot. is the problem of controlling a plane easier than driving a car? yes. so what?
- olex 6y ago
  > autopilot in a plane is a true autopilot That is only true for modern autopilot systems in commercial airliners and business jets. But the system has been called "autopilot" since the 70s, when it could barely hold pitch and yaw within a tolerable deviation, with no regard to the engine, altitude, yaw or a dozen of other parameters that still had to be maintained manually. Most plane autopilots are somewhere in between these extremes, and require constant supervision by the pilot in command when flying.
  - rantwasp 6y ago
    i was thinking about the big commercial airplanes. it’s probably true that airplanes were also ambitious at first, but the difference is that flying (paradoxically) is way way more forgiving than driving. Also, in flying you have a support system that is built to promote safety as everyone understands that mistakes == death when they happen. When was the last time you thought about the fact that you might die when getting into a car?
    - fastball 6y ago
      I think about dying in cars every time I put on my seatbelt.
  - adrr 6y ago
    Autopilot on the old planes didn't require full attention of the pilot. They can take the hands off the controls. Fill out forms, run checklists etc. It is like level 3 self driving. Telsa autopilot requires drivers to keep their hands on the controls. I am not aware of any self pilot system that requires 100% of pilots/drivers/captains focus to be on act of controlling of the vehicle/vessel/plane except Tesla. Most other car manufactures label similar level 2 systems as lane centering and adaptive cruise control. Cruise calls it super cruise in reference to being a better cruise control system. If it was level 3 capable, autopilot would be a descriptive name.
lolinder 6y ago
The issue isn't how sophisticated or feature rich it is, the problem is the expectations it creates for what you can do. As a sibling has pointed out, the other places where autopilot is currently used are places where, once autopilot is turned on, much less attention is needed to avoid a fatal accident. For this reason, the connotation of "autopilot" is "the vehicle controls itself with no effort needed on the part of the operator", which is simply untrue for Tesla.
- fastball 6y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_zTZjCCoxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_zTZjCCoxo
  - lolinder 6y ago
    That's a demo of the new "full self driving", not existing Autopilot. I might be on board with calling that functionality "autopilot", but they already used that term up and had to escalate. With that escalation, the marketing is once again out of sync with reality.

adrr 6y ago

I can go to sleep on a boats autopilot system. On plane autopilot, I can take my hands off the controls and start filling out landing forms.

rantwasp 6y ago
you can also do this in a Tesla with the difference that you may make the news /s

seoaeu 6y ago

Can we get over this trope of "autopilot doesn't mean self driving." Everybody knows what normal people mean by autopilot. And even if they didn't, introducing the new "Full Self-Driving" terminology seems to me to have a pretty unambiguous meaning.

fastball 6y ago
I don't know a single person that thinks planes are entirely flying themselves without pilot intervention? Not gonna lie you have a very dim view of "normal people". Clearly you do not believe planes are entirely flying themselves, so I'm wondering who these "normal people" are that you are speaking for.

rantwasp 6y ago

i disagree. you don’t get the name autopilot just because you are doing something sophisticated. autopilot in a plane is a true autopilot as it truly controls the plane. in fact apart from takeoff and landing most of the flying is done by the autopilot. is the problem of controlling a plane easier than driving a car? yes. so what?

olex 6y ago
> autopilot in a plane is a true autopilot That is only true for modern autopilot systems in commercial airliners and business jets. But the system has been called "autopilot" since the 70s, when it could barely hold pitch and yaw within a tolerable deviation, with no regard to the engine, altitude, yaw or a dozen of other parameters that still had to be maintained manually. Most plane autopilots are somewhere in between these extremes, and require constant supervision by the pilot in command when flying.
- rantwasp 6y ago
  i was thinking about the big commercial airplanes. it’s probably true that airplanes were also ambitious at first, but the difference is that flying (paradoxically) is way way more forgiving than driving. Also, in flying you have a support system that is built to promote safety as everyone understands that mistakes == death when they happen. When was the last time you thought about the fact that you might die when getting into a car?
  - fastball 6y ago
    I think about dying in cars every time I put on my seatbelt.
- adrr 6y ago
  Autopilot on the old planes didn't require full attention of the pilot. They can take the hands off the controls. Fill out forms, run checklists etc. It is like level 3 self driving. Telsa autopilot requires drivers to keep their hands on the controls. I am not aware of any self pilot system that requires 100% of pilots/drivers/captains focus to be on act of controlling of the vehicle/vessel/plane except Tesla. Most other car manufactures label similar level 2 systems as lane centering and adaptive cruise control. Cruise calls it super cruise in reference to being a better cruise control system. If it was level 3 capable, autopilot would be a descriptive name.

lolinder 6y ago

The issue isn't how sophisticated or feature rich it is, the problem is the expectations it creates for what you can do. As a sibling has pointed out, the other places where autopilot is currently used are places where, once autopilot is turned on, much less attention is needed to avoid a fatal accident. For this reason, the connotation of "autopilot" is "the vehicle controls itself with no effort needed on the part of the operator", which is simply untrue for Tesla.

fastball 6y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_zTZjCCoxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_zTZjCCoxo
- lolinder 6y ago
  That's a demo of the new "full self driving", not existing Autopilot. I might be on board with calling that functionality "autopilot", but they already used that term up and had to escalate. With that escalation, the marketing is once again out of sync with reality.