Autopilot -> Automatic Pilot. Automatic: working by itself with little or no direct human control. Pilot: one qualified to control a vehicle. I'd argue if autopilot requires intervention it is hardly automatic and definitely not qualified to operate a vehicle.
Further, consider other automatic devices in most cars, such as the automatic transmission. How do people expect to intervene with a gear shift during normal operation? Never.
It's like how 'act' means one thing, 'god' means one thing, but in the right context 'act of god' doesn't mean a supernatural being intervened.
Demanding a rigorous scientific study on human understanding of a word is simply not necessary when there are multiple recorded videos of people asleep at the wheel with a fucking banana on a string dangling from the steering wheel to fool the system.
People trying to fool the system is not Tesla's fault and indicates they are aware of the warnings alerting them they need to pay attention.
If people are dangling bananas they're doing it for attention and you guys are feeding it and blaming the manufacturer.
Changing the product name will not change anything.
Humans will always be a piece of shit sometimes.
Where? How? That's not a scientific statement.
> Loads of people think pilots simply push a button then sit back and relax as the plane automatically taxis, takes off, flies then lands itself.
Who thinks that? That seems like a hyperbole and you can't possibly know.
> Tesla chose to inherit those misconceptions.
Assuming all those above assumptions are true and assuming Tesla reached those same conclusions as the people that didn't know how airplanes work.
Just loads of speculating and attempted mind-reading...
> Autopilot -> Automatic Pilot
Autopilot is one word and has a specific definition in avionics. It keeps the altitude and heading.
If you rip the word apart and magically transform Auto to Automatic you have Automatic and Pilot, but there is no such thing as an automatic pilots, just pilots, that's why autopilot is one word.
Under that same logic automobiles should be automatic mobility devices that self-drive already.
You can't change the definition of a word to meet your argument. You also can't speculate that people probably might think the word may mean this.
Autopilot !== automatic pilot. That's not a thing.