Tesla could easily have the "autopilot" turn off if no hands are detected on the wheel for, say, 10 seconds. Putting a blurb in the instruction manual about keeping your hands on the wheel but then allowing users to use it hands-free is broadcasting, "Hey, you don't really have to do this"
It still boggles my mind that people think this way. YOU put yourself in control a potentially deadly vehicle. You choose to do so. What will your super-reliable car do if you run into a pedestrian?
"It shouldn't be hard." It is. "We shouldn't expect people to read the manual." We should. If they don't, and injure someone or themselves, they are being criminally negligent.
Yes. I hear you. If I, as a non-Tesla driving, regular motorist got grievously injured by a Tesla running autosteer, I bet I'd be able to choose from the nation's finest injury lawyers.
There's an old saying: your freedom to Tesla autosteer your vehicle ends at the tip of my bumper. (Or something like that.)
You don't have to advise; you could mandate. The car knows how fast it's going and where it is, and with a little help from its Internet connection, can know when it's on an undivided road.
What is then the point of having an autopilot?
Since that's not what it's doing at all, I think this is not how Tesla intends the feature to currently work.
The relief which is afforded to the pilot by the use of the Automatic Pilot permits him to devote the greater part of his time to navigation, map reading, and the operation of his radio installation, whereas with manual control, his whole time is occupied with the actual flying of the aircraft.
That was the original intent of Autopilot: offload the mechanics of flying so that the pilots could concentrate on finding their destination even at night or in bad weather: conditions in which the autopilot was also immensely superior to an infallible and easily-confused human, not the other way about as we see with systems such as Tesla's.
They didn't have to keep their hands on the controls, they could trust that the machine could handle everything except the one-in-one-million scenario.
Similar with the garage door incident - "Well, no-one said it should be used without full supervision! It needs to be watched!" ... like in the Tesla videos where the owner summons the vehicle as he's walking out the front door, or hits auto-park... and walks away.
From the article:
"We specifically advise against its use at high speeds on undivided roads," it said. Tesla states clearly in its owner's manual that drivers should stay alert and keep their hands on the wheel to avoid accidents when the Autopilot feature is engaged.