California judge rules that Tesla engaged in deceptive marketing for Autopilot

“Autopilot” is already a technical aviation term — planes don’t fly themselves while the pilot sleeps — so the misunderstanding comes from the public, not the term.

And without a legal framework defining responsibility for autonomous systems, the liability naturally falls back to the human who activates the feature.

So the root issue isn’t the marketing; it’s the regulatory vacuum that let the ambiguity persist.

(Just my impression as a non-expert observer.)