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Comment by sedatk | Hacker News Reader

That's what I thought too, but interestingly, autopilot is mere cruise control for airplanes. It can't take off or land the plane, it doesn't change course. It's definitely not "self-flying". But somehow, the term "autopilot" for cars made me think that the car would drive itself. That's an interesting twist of perception.

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I'm pretty sure autopilot in planes can land them. They don't do this because they need pilots to be trained in how to land them in the event of autopilot failure. I know for a fact there are non-commercial planes, for example, that will detect pilot incapacitation, find the nearest airport, account for local weather, talk to ATC, and land the aircraft.

That’s ILS, AFAIK, not autopilot per se.

Autoland works. But the pilot doesn't turn it on until the tower (other other communication if no tower) says okay, and since nobody else is in the way of course it won't hit anyone.

There is a second mode in some. There it broadcasts emergency, uncontrolled plane will land, get of my way as I won't get out of yours. Useful if the pilot is dead (so a passenger who is told hit that button in an emergency can safely land), but cannot be used for anything else.

Mind linking to evidence regarding the ‘second mode’ you referred to? I have not heard of anything like that, and I am a reporter who covers transportation safety.

That's how it used to be. In the past, "autopilot" was used by laymen to describe a vehicle control system that could safely drive itself (in contrast to cruise control, which was more limited). For example, in the punchline to this chain letter from 1993:

> [A man] was driving along in his motor home. He turned on his ‘cruise control’. Apparently misunderstanding the function of ‘cruise control’, he then went into the back of the motor home. The motor home drove off the road and crashed. Apparently he did not realize that ‘cruise control’ is not ‘autopilot.’

This story is apocryphal, but it illustrates that the popular understanding of 'autopilot' for road vehicles was full self-driving.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cruise-uncontrol/

Tesla apparently also uses the phrase “Full Self-Driving”?

I don't think the claims are solely about the name "autopilot", but additional names and marketing.

Autopilot in planes does change course. In GA it's called GPSS steering and a lot of planes have it. I believe jet planes have more sophisticated autopilot that can change when ATC gives a new heading.

> In GA it's called GPSS

It has a different name because it is different from traditional autopilot that just maintain heading and altitude.

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