What does Auto-pilot actually do? (Transport/Vehicles)

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I’m not sure how big the difference is on auto-pilot between marinecrafts and aircrafts, so apologies for including both in the question.

It sounds like it makes the ship/plane run itself, without any need for a person to control it, but how could that be the case? These machinaries sound like they should be steered and watched at all times. It sounds dangerous to leave them on an “auto” mode.

Is there an in-depth explaination behind what auto-pilot does? What are its limits? Is it possible to go wrong in some way, and if so, does it have some kind of alarm?

In: Technology

8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

On my boat, the autopilot will hold a constant compass heading. So let’s say you want to go north, you point the boat that direction and turn it on and the boat will keep going that way. If you want to turn you can press +/- 1 or 10 and the boat will turn to the new heading. It won’t avoid other boats, it won’t navigate around obstacles. It just goes straight, you need to pay attention and disable it when maneuvers are required. Does everybody pay as much attention as they should? Of course not.

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