[treesprite82]

Something that just flies an aircraft straight and level is still an autopilot, so I don't think it's a totally inaccurate metaphor.

Ironically in these situations a more understated name would probably work better for PR. Headline of "Tesla on cruise control rear ends motorcycle on freeway, killing rider" gives a much stronger impression of it being the driver's fault.

[moralestapia]

You bring up a valid argument but, unfortunately, it cuts both ways.

Aircraft manufacturers are liable when their vehicles crash due to malfunction.

[josephcsible]

If the pilot turns on autopilot and then stops paying attention, and then the plane crashes, it's absolutely not the manufacturer's fault.

[Schroedingersat]

If the pilot turns on autopilot and looks away for 60 seconds he's using it as intended. This is what autopilot means. Cruise control is not autopilot. The only way your comment would make sense would be if the typical environment for a car were a flat plane of asphalt 100s of km across with all other cars having centrally planned routes that were guaranteed by a third party not to intersect and drivers were trained to turn it off on anything resembling a normal road.

[ricardobeat]

If the pilot turns on AP, looks away, and then 30s later crashes into a small aircraft that didn't have their transponder on, is he relived of any responsibility? I don't think so, and am pretty sure there has to be a pilot in the cockpit/controls at all times even while AP is on.

[Schroedingersat]

The time-scale in which a tesla driver must react to it failing is 10s or so to under a second, not 30s.

If this happened anywhere that policy and law said it was okay to use autopilot then you would see changes in the policy, and fault laid on air traffic control at minimum, and then the scope in which autopilot could be used would be massively restricted.

If boeing had advertised the feature for use at low altitude in congested airspace and written the training with that in mind then most likely someone at boeing would be criminally at fault.

[treesprite82]

For convenience features advertised as requiring active driver supervision and not making the vehicle autonomous, I think it only really makes sense for the driver to be liable.

Similarly, if some airplane instrument is stated to require regular calibration to stay within acceptable error limits, I don't think the manufacturer would be liable if the instrument starts to drift when those calibrations are not carried out. Or if some crash-contributing decision is made based on assuming a higher accuracy than promised.

[influxmoment]

Aircraft manufacturers are not responsible for an autopilot crash

[arealaccount]

“Straight and level” in a car is cruise control. The expectation for autopilot would be much higher.