IANAP but I think they can take their hands off the controls and pick up a dropped phone.

So you can on tesla when used correctly. Can you enable plane autopilot and still crash into a mountain?

Modern autopilots? No, they will not crash into a mountain or another plane.

So you’re a pilot?

You asked the question to someone you knew wasn't a pilot.

So why are you ignoring the answer you got, instead waiting to hear if the person that answered is a pilot before you acknowledge it?

What matters is the definition which most people use.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44761341

I guess I don't understand how.

> A navigation mechanism, as on an aircraft, that automatically maintains a preset course.

Applies here. As far as I can tell the system did do exactly that. But the details of the actual event are unclear (I've heard parked car but also just hitting the back of another car?)

It’s an emergent technology. The onus is on Tesla to be crystal clear about capabilities, and consistently so. People might quite reasonably infer that something which is labeled as “auto-“ or “automatic” doesn’t require supervision.

Such as automobile?

Automobiles are self-propelled, not self-navigating. They don't rely on horses to pull them.

automobile: self-propelled (self moving)

autopilot: self-piloting (self navigating)

https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=automobile

Indeed, since you do not need to externally supervise the drivetrain in a car.

It didnt maintain the course. It kept going at a t intersection and ploughed into another car

It can be called anything in an airplane because there the pilot has some level of training with the system and understands its limits. You don't get a pilot hopping on a 767 and flying a bunch of people around solely because Boeing used autopilot in a deceptive marketing ad, then getting the surprise of a lifetime when the autopilot doesn't avoid flying into a mountain.

A car is another thing entirely because the general population's definition of "autopilot" does come into play and sometimes without proper training or education. I can just go rent a tesla right now.

>You don't get a pilot hopping on a 767 and flying a bunch of people around solely because Boeing used autopilot in a deceptive marketing ad, then getting the surprise of a lifetime when the autopilot doesn't avoid flying into a mountain.

...Um... You did get pilots hopping into a 737 MAX, getting training that barely mentioned an automated anti-stall and flight envelope management system called MCAS that eventually flew several planeloads of people into the ground. That was managements idea too, btw.

The word literally means automatic pilot. Legal departments create an alternate definition of the word to not get sued and most people will interpret the word literally.