The term is certainly no exaggeration if you look at what an autopilot does in a plane. Keep attitude, maybe turn to next waypoint. All in all super primitive to what a Tesla does.
I'm sure Tesla has stacks of pre-prepared legal defense around the term, and they'll certainly make the same airplane argument.
My bet is it will quickly fall apart. Ask your average person what "autopilot" implies and they're going to give you the sci-fi definition of a completely autonomous driving system, not many people know about the mechanics and limitations of autopilots in airplanes.
That's totally sufficient for airplanes since crossing semi-trailers are fairly rare on airways. Jokes aside, all obstacles for airplanes are radar tracked, so keeping attitude is all that it needs doing. If human intervention is needed, the system usually has time to warn. Still, even those super-simple systems fail.
My bet is it will quickly fall apart. Ask your average person what "autopilot" implies and they're going to give you the sci-fi definition of a completely autonomous driving system, not many people know about the mechanics and limitations of autopilots in airplanes.