Hacker News Reader

An interesting bit of history is that autopilot was one of the first common terms for cruise control, and was in use until at least the mid 60s.

That is far enough back to not have any relevance to Tesla's current customer demographic though.

View on HN

Also airplanes use autopilot and require full control at all times. It's almost as though there are no situations where the term autopilot refers to a fully automated system. Who knows where the general public today go that impression. Perhaps science fiction stories.

Airplanes use a variety of modes of autopilot systems and some modes absolutely do not require the pilot to touch the controls. They do require the pilot to set the mode and its parameters in the first place, and it would usually be considered a serious safety violation if both pilots were to get up and leave the cockpit while autopilot was engaged, but the technology is definitely good enough to handle this situation.

This is not true for Tesla's FSD. Not by a longshot.

> some modes absolutely do not require the pilot to touch the controls.

Autopilot can disengage and return control to the pilot at any moment. Pilots have to be on alert at all time. This has resulted in sone catastrophic outcomes, such as AF447.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com