[kpao]

Tell that to a pilot who's had an autopilot failure where a servo went crazy all of a sudden. You better act quick, especially in low visibility situations, to turn it off, or pull the circuit breaker. It might happen a bit slower than in a car, but the consequences can be much more dramatic.

[lightcatcher]

> the consequences can be much more dramatic

How are the consequences much more dramatic while flying? I can think of plenty of scenarios while driving where you go from perfect autopilot conditions with no visible risks to death of passengers or pedestrians in <5 seconds.

[makomk]

Errm, I'm pretty sure the car equivalent of that would result in the vehicle swerving towards the side of a bridge at 70+ MPH, with very little chance of reacting quickly enough to turn it off. A car on the highway really doesn't have that much in the way of safety margins.

[gambiting]

Even if the plane started falling down like a rock, you still have more time to react than a driver of a car where a tyre burst at 80mph and now the car is heading towards the incoming lane/rock face on the other side. You literally might have less than few seconds to impact and I imagine that if you weren't holding the steering wheel at the time, you won't be able to do anything.

[CamperBob2]

Especially considering that the pilot has been trained to react to an autopilot failure, while a driver hasn't been.

There is just no excuse for using that particular term for this particular technology.