No, this is not pedantic. An autopilot is a complex system that needs full time management. It looks like this [1], and you need to correctly twiddle the dials every few minutes to get the plane to do what you want. It's not a button, it doesn't avoid traffic, and it doesn't know about the broader flight plan. Even fancy autopilots that can follow waypoints and intercept a localizer and autoland and all that - managing them looks more like programming a crappy computer than pressing a button.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot#/media/File%3AFMS_...

Which means that both pilots 1.set the parameters (not a single button push), 2.follow closely that the plane does what they would have, 3.ready to take over at any moment, as the AP cannot even reliably detect it's not on the happy path; this does take off some of the cognitive load off the pilots, but it's very far from the narrative "push button and have a coffee" that's being peddled here.

In fact, it's more of "hold this heading and glideslope" than anything else - a smarter cruise control, if you will.

"In fact, it's more of "hold this heading and glideslope" than anything else - a smarter cruise control, if you will."

Sounds like Autopilot on Teslas is the same thing as an autopilot on an airplane, so why is everyone angry at them again? Somehow they're responsible for the majority of the public having misconceptions about both?

Somebody is promoting and selling "full self-driving", with fine print specifying "in some indeterminate future". Perhaps that could be...nah, not related at all.

The first automated landing on a commercial flight took place before microprocessors were invented, to give you an idea of complexity. To this day, autoland means that the aircraft follows a radio beam down to runway, pitching slightly up and reducing thrust to idle when radar altimeter reading falls under 50 ft. It's really primitive tech, essentially a line following robot.