What are our thoughts about an autopilot function? What about the idea of setting a destination, knowing it's going to take 30 minutes, hitting autopilot, and then going and making a sandwich?
TL;DRAutopilot isn't something the speakers have heard Chris discuss beyond an AI doing it, so they aren't planning for it, and any version would have to be slower than a skilled player.
Well, I assume if you're just quantuming, then fair enough. You can get up and go play chess in the background kind of thing. But if something happens, then you're scrambling. As far as just pure autopilot, at least it's not something I've heard Chris ever talk about, besides having an AI actually do it. But I don't want to poo-poo it. Until I actually hear it from my boss's mouth, I'm not planning for it.
Even if we do this at some point, the capabilities of the autopilot will have to be greatly reduced compared to what a player will be able to do. So a player will be a lot more efficient, faster to get there. If we ever do this, even if it's an NPC doing it, unless it's a very well-trained NPC that's flying your ship, it will be slower than what the player can do.