Well that is literally where the term comes from and it hasn't really been used in any other context until Tesla's usage, so not really sure where the average person's confusion is coming from.
My point is: I don't think this is true. But if you have a survey which indicates that a broad swath of the population believes Teslas with Autopilot don't need any human intervention or shouldn't have someone in the driver's seat I'd love to see it.
Literally dozens of people in this thread are saying "this is what the average person believes" when none of them believe it themselves. Where are ya'll getting this insight into the average person's thought processes?
I mean, it's worth noting that in most aviation and marine scenarios, collision is relatively unlikely. Leaving a plane on autopilot to go in a straight line for a while is unlikely to be dangerous, but it would be very dangerous in a car.
If that is the general perception, how it got that way doesn't change what people think the word means, or what they'll hear when Tesla names a feature Autopilot.
I'm questioning this oft-cited version of reality. I don't know a single person that thinks autopilot means pilots don't need to be in airplanes, and consequently that autopilot means you don't need drivers in the driver's seat.
Of course people recognize that they can get around Tesla's precautions and have nobody in the driver's seat, just like pilots could all leave the cockpit while the 737 is in flight and go get wasted at the minibar or whatever. But they don't and neither should drivers, and Tesla isn't suggesting that driver's should – in fact they've put technological precautions in place that airplanes with autopilot don't even use to ensure someone is at the stick.
You can also run over pedestrians with [insert car here], but nobody is suggesting you do it. People doing it anyway is not [insert car manufacturer here]'s fault.
It may be misleading, but my argument is that it is not misleading to the point that they deprive the people doing these things of agency, which to me is what matters. Everyone who is disregarding the warnings, weighting their steering wheel, weighting the driver's seat, etc. knows that what they are doing is not how the vehicle is intended to be operated at this time. They are knowingly pushing the limits.
If tomorrow Boeing came out and said "hey, Autopilot on the 787 Dreamliner is sophisticated to the point where the plane can totally fly itself, from takeoff to landing", would it be reasonable for all 787 Dreamliner pilots to just leave the cockpit and get wasted with the flight attendants in the back? I don't think so. So I don't understand why people are holding Tesla to a ridiculous standard that they're not holding any other company to. Teslas can drive themselves from A to B in many situations at this point. It's not false advertising to say that. What would not be OK is if Tesla was saying if you buy this car you don't need to be in the driver's seat right now (not in the future, which is how they're currently selling it).