4 ms·

Autopilot may be a marketing name and people can voice their opinion about it as not being appropriate or whatever but where did the notion come from that "Auto

by noxer 5y ago

Autopilot may be a marketing name and people can voice their opinion about it as not being appropriate or whatever but where did the notion come from that "Autopilot" means it works on its own without human? Autopilot is a term most commonly used in aircraft and that's where almost everyone has head from it before. At the same time almost everyone should be fully aware that aircraft on autopilot do in fact need at least one human pilot. Almost all aircraft inevitably crash if left on autopilot with no further human interaction. So where does this idea come from that the word "autopilot" somehow misleads people into believing that it does not require a human.

runarberg 5y ago
Most people aren’t pilots, most people have never flown an aircraft, most people have no idea how actual autopilot works. I bet most people think that autopilot is something you turn on while in air and makes the airplane fly on course without further inputs from the pilot. I bet for most people autopilot means computer does driving.
- noxer 5y ago
  You dont have to be pilot or even remotely interested in aircraft to know the term. Its like "Blackbox" everyone with basic education has heard about it. >I bet for most people autopilot means computer does driving. That is the claim but there is no evidence at all. Everyone knows there is a pilot in almost every aircraft and that autopilot is just a computer that takes work away. If it would fly alone there would be no pilot. There should be no people with a driver license who think autopilot means no human needed. Its completely absurd. That word never meant that and its not people misinterpreting the word that sleep in their cars and crash it. These people are not mislead by a word they are just irresponsible and fully aware of it or drunk.
  - runarberg 5y ago
    I guess we won’t know until we ask a random sample. Until then—and unless Tesla has conducted a survey and is not sharing—we can assume at best negligence and at worst intentional market manipulation.
    - noxer 5y ago
      I guess we assume word have meaning and are mostly understood by everyone according to the meanings or people dont understand the word at all if they never heard it. Assuming wide spread misinterpretation is a bit far fetched especially for a word that the average teenager knows what it means.
  - johnisgood 5y ago
    I think people do think that for the most part, the airplane goes on autopilot, requiring minimal input from the pilot, and when everything goes smoothly, no input is required from the pilot. Input is only required when things go wrong. I think this is what people think, but I am just speculating.
dragontamer 5y ago
> Autopilot may be a marketing name and people can voice their opinion about it as not being appropriate or whatever but where did the notion come from that "Autopilot" means it works on its own without human? When Tesla Marketing videos said "The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself". You can find this quote all over the internet. Since this is Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26858525 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26858525, you can see people discussing this and proving that the video said that. Quote end-quote. Tesla literally said that and posted it all over the internet. Elon Musk then came on after that video was aired and said they'll have "Coast to coast Full-self driving" in 2017, and repeatedly double-downed on that claim.
- noxer 5y ago
  I didn't say anything about Tesla, I dont care about Tesla. The word was "Autopilot" and the claim was that people interpret the word wrong. There is zero evidence that this is the case. I've never talked to anyone who doesn't know what the word means and no one ever expressed that it means "drives/flies without a human". Not even Tesla said that. The "Full Self-Driving Capability" that they promised and never delivered was not named "Autopilot" yet people keep bring up that "misleading" word as the reason why people crash cars. It makes no sense.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    But you're posting in a Tesla thread, where a Tesla-car with the Autopilot feature crashed into a stopped car in front of it. I have to imagine that your postings here have something to do with the accident that this entire topic is about.
    - noxer 5y ago
      Because the claim that people dont understand the word comes up in such threads. Other than that my post had nothing to do with the thread/article it was a reply to the parent post stating the claim.
chrismcb 5y ago
Well the name for one. But a plane on autopilot can fly itself for a long time.
- noxer 5y ago
  That depend on the plane and all kinds of external circumstances as well as how it is programmed etc. etc. But I can assure you even modern passenger plane on autopilot do not avoid crashes with other planes, buildings or ground (mountains etc.) It also wont start or land a plane. In a worst case scenario the autopilot would crash the plane immediately because it was give the task to fly into something and in best case scenario the plane flies according to the programmed route and corrects for wind and all that and if nothing is in the way it eventually runs out of fuel and crashes. AFAIK it would not even slow down and certainly it would not do an emergency landing.
steveylang 5y ago
“Auto” here being short for automatic, so “automatic pilot.” I understand your explanation of the term with regards to airplanes, but not everybody understands that. Even if the term ‘autopilot’ is technically correct, it might be better to just call it driver assist for now. I’m not laying the blame on Tesla for these sorts of accidents though. Regardless of the name, I think Tesla makes it explicitly clear how the function should be used. I do think there is some friction here between Tesla’s branding and marketing goals, and the long and complex road to safe autonomous driving.
- noxer 5y ago
  That is correct and therefore the autopilot does automatic piloting which is obviously spectrum that can include more or less capabilities but certainly its not to be confuse with "autonomous piloting" or "self-driving/operating".

by noxer 5y ago

runarberg 5y ago

Most people aren’t pilots, most people have never flown an aircraft, most people have no idea how actual autopilot works. I bet most people think that autopilot is something you turn on while in air and makes the airplane fly on course without further inputs from the pilot. I bet for most people autopilot means computer does driving.

noxer 5y ago
You dont have to be pilot or even remotely interested in aircraft to know the term. Its like "Blackbox" everyone with basic education has heard about it. >I bet for most people autopilot means computer does driving. That is the claim but there is no evidence at all. Everyone knows there is a pilot in almost every aircraft and that autopilot is just a computer that takes work away. If it would fly alone there would be no pilot. There should be no people with a driver license who think autopilot means no human needed. Its completely absurd. That word never meant that and its not people misinterpreting the word that sleep in their cars and crash it. These people are not mislead by a word they are just irresponsible and fully aware of it or drunk.
- runarberg 5y ago
  I guess we won’t know until we ask a random sample. Until then—and unless Tesla has conducted a survey and is not sharing—we can assume at best negligence and at worst intentional market manipulation.
  - noxer 5y ago
    I guess we assume word have meaning and are mostly understood by everyone according to the meanings or people dont understand the word at all if they never heard it. Assuming wide spread misinterpretation is a bit far fetched especially for a word that the average teenager knows what it means.
- johnisgood 5y ago
  I think people do think that for the most part, the airplane goes on autopilot, requiring minimal input from the pilot, and when everything goes smoothly, no input is required from the pilot. Input is only required when things go wrong. I think this is what people think, but I am just speculating.

dragontamer 5y ago

> Autopilot may be a marketing name and people can voice their opinion about it as not being appropriate or whatever but where did the notion come from that "Autopilot" means it works on its own without human? When Tesla Marketing videos said "The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself". You can find this quote all over the internet. Since this is Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26858525 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26858525, you can see people discussing this and proving that the video said that. Quote end-quote. Tesla literally said that and posted it all over the internet. Elon Musk then came on after that video was aired and said they'll have "Coast to coast Full-self driving" in 2017, and repeatedly double-downed on that claim.

noxer 5y ago
I didn't say anything about Tesla, I dont care about Tesla. The word was "Autopilot" and the claim was that people interpret the word wrong. There is zero evidence that this is the case. I've never talked to anyone who doesn't know what the word means and no one ever expressed that it means "drives/flies without a human". Not even Tesla said that. The "Full Self-Driving Capability" that they promised and never delivered was not named "Autopilot" yet people keep bring up that "misleading" word as the reason why people crash cars. It makes no sense.
- dragontamer 5y ago
  But you're posting in a Tesla thread, where a Tesla-car with the Autopilot feature crashed into a stopped car in front of it. I have to imagine that your postings here have something to do with the accident that this entire topic is about.
  - noxer 5y ago
    Because the claim that people dont understand the word comes up in such threads. Other than that my post had nothing to do with the thread/article it was a reply to the parent post stating the claim.

chrismcb 5y ago

Well the name for one. But a plane on autopilot can fly itself for a long time.

noxer 5y ago
That depend on the plane and all kinds of external circumstances as well as how it is programmed etc. etc. But I can assure you even modern passenger plane on autopilot do not avoid crashes with other planes, buildings or ground (mountains etc.) It also wont start or land a plane. In a worst case scenario the autopilot would crash the plane immediately because it was give the task to fly into something and in best case scenario the plane flies according to the programmed route and corrects for wind and all that and if nothing is in the way it eventually runs out of fuel and crashes. AFAIK it would not even slow down and certainly it would not do an emergency landing.

steveylang 5y ago

“Auto” here being short for automatic, so “automatic pilot.” I understand your explanation of the term with regards to airplanes, but not everybody understands that. Even if the term ‘autopilot’ is technically correct, it might be better to just call it driver assist for now. I’m not laying the blame on Tesla for these sorts of accidents though. Regardless of the name, I think Tesla makes it explicitly clear how the function should be used. I do think there is some friction here between Tesla’s branding and marketing goals, and the long and complex road to safe autonomous driving.

noxer 5y ago
That is correct and therefore the autopilot does automatic piloting which is obviously spectrum that can include more or less capabilities but certainly its not to be confuse with "autonomous piloting" or "self-driving/operating".