The autopilot in an airplane cannot be used without a pilot paying attention, either, but it is still called an autopilot. (For example, autopilots do not avoid traffic on a collision course.)
This is the worst of both worlds--having people become complacent behind the wheel while a computer drives only to have to suddenly become engaged which you know isn't going to happen. A lot of people nod off while driving as it is. Take away the "you're going to die if you don't pay attention" part and then imagine what happens!
Of course it can be used without a pilot paying attention. But this rarely happens. If we trained drivers the way we train pilots, it wouldn't be a problem in cars, either.
Also, the comparison would be more relevant if you had as much time to correct problems that occur eight feet away from an oncoming lane of 70 MPH traffic, and as many degrees of freedom in which to do so, as you do when something goes wrong with nothing but 10,000 feet of air around you.
Air safety is an intimidating engineering problem, but it's utterly trivial compared to what it will take to build safe self-driving cars. Make no mistake, it's about time we tried... but we just need to not be stupid about it. Calling a glorified cruise control "Autopilot" is stupid.
And while the name is perhaps misleading to the xommon layperson, your comment of "it is not in fact an autopilot" is flat out wrong. Instead perhaps "it is in fact an autopilot, but you don't know what an autopilot is or how it should be used"
You're arguing semantics. The average person will see "autopilot" and experience a few "happy" drives where the car stays in its lane and has no problems. Then they will stop paying attention and die when they are asleep when it "hands over control" at 60 mph due to a failed sensor or something.
Except when they aren't - see Air France 447 for what happens when a driver has to step in after the autopilot can't cope with the situation.
Then enhance the frequency of it happening by three orders of magnitude given that Tesla drivers are generally not professional drivers, let alone trained in the quirks of an autopilot in the beta release stage...
You know that; I know that; the average Joe on the street does not, and instead has a Hollywood interpretation of the term. Tesla knowingly and cynically exploits that.
