That's referring to the human condition of "being on autopilot" (aka. your higher cognitive functions aren't doing much and you're brain's operating primarily on reflex). It's generally only used to describe situations where you've done something dumb because you were impaired or weren't really paying attention.
People keep saying that but I don’t buy it. For example, “to do something on autopilot” is a common idiom meaning that you did something reflexively without thinking, often with bad results.
There are contrary examples that normal people would know too. For instance, it’s common to use the phrase “on autopilot” to describe the state of a person who does something really stupid because they were following a routine without thinking.
> I tend to use Autopilot for the monotonous driving parts .. and then take over myself if there is something that needs more attention (construction, weather conditions, crazy drivers, etc.)
To me, this seems to imply that you're not paying attention when Autopilot is engaged.
Are you being intentionally caustic? The phrase "running on autopilot" is an established colloquialism for doing something without being mindful of it, and almost every major dictionary definition of "autopilot" states that it is a system used to navigate something without a human.
Demanding a rigorous scientific study on human understanding of a word is simply not necessary when there are multiple recorded videos of people asleep at the wheel with a fucking banana on a string dangling from the steering wheel to fool the system.
No, you are exactly right. “On autopilot” is English vernacular for “without thinking or paying attention”. It completely sends with wrong message, and the lawyers will have a field day with this in court.
Autopilot refers to a wide range of capabilities on boats and airplanes. Many of those require an active, attentive opertator for safety.
The car is warning you if you take your hands off the steering wheel. I don't see how anyone but a moron would value their misconceptions about the term "autopilot" over the clear signals that your hands are required to be on the steering wheel.
I wish people would stop bringing this idiotic point about the term "autopilot" and instead talk about how the different designs of autopilot can encourage or discourage attentiveness in operators.
The feeling of being "on autopilot" when doing a task has to do with your, let's call it, supervisory process being otherwise occupied. It doesn't suggest that that the other mental processes which are responsible for figuring out the actions have changed their character or mode of operation.
"You" are just not paying attention to it in that moment.
I think the argument against the term 'autopilot' is less about the technical accuracy, and more about the implication and assumptions of the layman. To most people, 'autopilot' suggest that they can be totally hands-off, which isn't true yet.
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