Because the fully-assisted driving ("autopilot") removes the need for interaction completely. Your brain will stop spending power on backseat driving, because the brain is really lazy--and clever about being lazy too.

>Because the fully-assisted driving ("autopilot") removes the need for interaction completely.

But it isn't fully assisted and doesn't completely remove the need for interaction. It just is another step forward from cruise control that is more assisted and requires less interaction. I am not sure why everyone assumes the sweet spot for driver assistance ends immediately after adaptive cruise control and before cruise control plus lane keeping.

>Your brain will stop spending power on backseat driving

That is an interesting phrase to use considering backseat drivers have zero responsibility or control of a car but still manage to pay attention.

Backseat drivers pay less attention than frontseat drivers, obviously.

Your characterization of autopilot as “just cruise control” is fundamentally incorrect. Mere cruise control still demands significant and continuous attention and manual control on your behalf (steering). Autosteer makes the leap to fully automatic, which opens the door to not paying attention for long stretches of time.

I am honestly not sure how to discuss this topic when in the same thread Tesla gets ridiculed for blurring the lines between Autopilot and full self driving while people who are critical of the system say things like Autopilot is "fully automatic", "fully-assisted driving", or "removes the need for interaction completely".

From a practical perspective, Autopilot still needs to be monitored. But more relevant to this discussion, the user still needs to interact with the car to keep Autopilot engaged. It is possible to do that while paying very little attention. It is also possible to drive a car with cruise control while paying very little attention. Both systems can be abused. I have already said Tesla should do a better job of trying to crack down on the abuse of Autopilot. But I don't know why it is controversial to say that if used properly both systems can lead to greater safety by allowing the driver to focus on other aspects of driving.

You're mischaracterizing the issue. Autopilot should be monitored but it can go for long stretches without manual intervention (as if fully automatic). Mere cruise control, on the other hand, requires manual steering.

You're just trying to make them sound similar, e.g. "if used properly" or "both can be abused". But there is an ocean of difference. It is vastly easier to ignore a system that is capable of driverless operation for long periods of time.

The biggest problem with this is that Tesla calls it autopilot. Had they called it advanced cruise control or something like that I think people would have used it with more caution. The more accidents that are happening makes me realize how far is Waymo/Google is actually ahead of the rest.

> If people aren't using it that way, that is certainly something Tesla should try to fix.

A good start would be to not call it auto pilot, and rename it to cruise control plus or whatever.