The justification isn't that people are morons, it's that the same word can have different meanings on different contexts.

In what transportation context does “autopilot” mean it works without supervision? I’ll wait.

But they aren't equivalent.

The airline system requires thousands of hours of training total (and many hours on a specific type/model of plane) to operate.

Driving a car requires no such training.

The training has nothing to do with the capabilities of the system.

The aircraft requires hundreds of hours to operate without autopilot. Autopilot isn’t what imposes the training requirement.