The car won’t let you not pay attention quite yet but that’s the idea for the future. Currently FSD is much like flying autopilot that Broothru mentioned. You just need to be there supervising the overall situation instead of paying so much attention hand flying the localizer and glide slope. Much less stressful.
P.S. I’ve had a few of those dark and stormy nights with a hint of icing low on fuel praying to see the ALS before DH.
Amen, Brother, on those "dark and stormies." But the truth of the matter is that the environmental conditions for a Category 3 autoland are quite restrictive with regards to crosswinds and windshear. It varies from aircraft to aircraft, but generally maximum x-wind is 20 kits or less.
You may remember a deadly crash of a Delta L-1011 at DFW in the early 80s during a severe microburst. Out of the data downloaded from the Flight Data Recorder, a computer simulation was built and widely incorporated into flight simulator profiles for crew training. Even when fully briefed on the profile, it was probably 50-50 that you'd be able to successfully fly through the windshear without crashing the sim. However, even the relatively primitive autopilot and flight guidance systems of the day (I was a L-1011 crewmember in the 80s) could actually avoid crashing, though it would maneuver in ways no 'normal' human pilot likely would.
Granted, computing speed, processors, AI, and control integration is light-years ahead today of what it was back then. Even the B777 I used to fly, which is now 20 year-old tech, has less capacity that the 'human interface.'
In the final analysis, any 'autopilot' guidance system whether in an airplane or an automobile, no matter how sophisticated, is little more than an obedient copilot who will faithfully execute tasks you tell (program) it to do. Generally it will perform precisely those tasks unless some higher level algorithm, either programic or human, intervenes. As the "human intervention device", the driver or pilot in command MUST maintain a higher level of oversight and be prepared to immediately assume physical control, as the driver of the Tesla repeatedly did.
At least in today's world, the "driver" needs to be even more vigilant while the "autopilot" is "controlling" a vehicle since you have to monitor and anticipate not only what the 'other guy' might do but also what the autopilot might do.
Brooo Brother
I've always been a sucker for any Porsche that channels the classic '911' look.
