Most drivers aren't pilots. They don't know what autopilot actually does. They expect it to drive the car for them, and they probably think autopilot does the same on planes. It was a mistake for Tesla to borrow the term.

You're purely speculating on people's knowledge:

> They don't know

> They expect

> they probably think

The alternative is some people are terrible and there will always be people that abuse nice things on purpose.

They know what they are doing, that's why they are trying to trick the warning systems.

These are the same people on the phones and merging without looking in normal cars.

All of that is speculation, but imo it's more likely than yours.

There's no need to speculate.

IIHS did a survey of 2000 people and a driver assistance system named "Autopilot" received the most responses that overestimated the system's capabilities. For example, "Nearly half — 48% — thought it would be safe to take hands off the steering wheel when using the system." In general, about 50% more people overestimated the capabilities of Autopilot compared to the names used by industry leaders (ex. SuperCruise, ProPilot Assist). Other things users were more likely to think they could do with "AutoPilot" included texting and watching a video.

See https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/new-studies-highlight-drive...

Only 6% thought taking a nap was okay though... 16% thought texting was okay.

So clearly not the majority in all aspects and the other names had similar results for those questions.

Because meanings of words can change depending on context.