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Comment by PostOnce | Hacker News Reader

> I am not sure why most people think autopilot is hands of the wheel without looking.

Well, because they named it autopilot.

Autopilot means it pilots... automatically. Automatic pilot. Not Manual Pilot, not with intervention, automatically.

They could have named it "driver assist", "partial-pilot", "advanced cruise control", "automatic lanekeeping" or anything else, but they named it Autopilot. That's Tesla's fault.

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Why is it named like this on ships or planes then? You most certainly need to intervene, when other vehicles are approaching. Just because this happens less in those environments, the name autopilot certainly fits.

If you go back in history, Tesla was one of the first manufacturers, to provide something more than just a lane assist. It is fair in my opinion to search for a different name, that distinguishes yourself from the competition.

For the same reason ships have starboard and port, and cars have driver's side and passenger's side. The terminology is different, the surrounding culture is different, and ignoring that will result in tragedy.

Tesla established the name autopilot in vehicles. they decided it’s exactly like planes and ships. There is no other concept of autopilot in cars.

That's not how words work. They chose that word because it's evocative of exactly what most people think while being just vague enough to give them regulatory deniability.

>Well, because they named it autopilot.

do commercial pilots lean back and whip out their phone when they turn on "autopilot"?

Commercial pilots have approximately 100x as much training as your typical driver.

No but they have years of training.

Commercial pilots have that point hammered into their heads. Tesla did everything in their power to convince buyers that "driver is there only for legal purposes" and they can chill instead of driving.

A few years ago, I sat in an Italian airplane with the cockpit door open. The pilot and copilot spent most of the trip speaking to each other, using their hands to emphasize their words (if you've ever seen two Italians arguing passionately, you'll see what I mean).

As far as I could tell, they only had their hands on the instruments during take off and landing.

It was a bit weird :)

Yes, there's some caveats to that but the simple answer is yes.

Teslas monitor drivers’ attention via the in-cabin camera.

ffs this is such a silly argument

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