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Poor analogy.

"Autopilot" comes from airplanes, where all it has done historically is "keep the plane going in a straight line".

In contrast, Tesla's AutoPilot can do much more.

Notably as well with autopilot in airplanes is that the pilot should always be in the cockpit, ready to take over... just like in a Tesla.




Notably absent here is the fact that planes can land themselves. In fact the plane can do everything on its own besides taxi on the runway and takeoff...most of the time. Yes, pilots are there to take over if needed, but that doesn't change the reality of autopilot which is not just "keep it in a straight line"


You sound like someone educated about aviation - Average Joe is not.

To Average Joe, "Autopilot" means it flies/drives itself.


Average Joe knows that planes have autopilot... that's where Average Joe heard the term first.

Do you really think Average Joe also thinks that planes entirely fly themselves and that pilots are just window-dressing?


Hang out in the Aviation StackExchange long enough and you'll see exactly that question come up. "Why do we even still have pilots?", or "What does a pilot actually do?".

Yes, in general, people are ignorant of what pilots do and what AutoPilot can and cannot do.

This is made even more confusing by recent progress in autopilot with some large jets getting auto-landing features.

And yes... a pilot can program the FMS with waypoints, altitudes, etc, get into the air, push a button... and the plane will indeed fly itself. Modern jets even have automatic throttle/power control too.

A better name for Tesla's system is what it actually is... Driver Asist. But that's not sexy... and we're far off into the weeds.

"Instant" means instant. There is no way to paint it differently.

It's disingenuous to call an ACH transfer "instant" instead of "It'll take several days during which time we'll lend you money", like RH did here.




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