There's a huge difference between a defective autopilot system and some basic level-flight assistance under human control.

In a heliocopter, the pilot is doing everything except pedalling to turn the rotors around -- there's a motor for that job. There should really also be some motors under feedback control to do other jobs, like keeping the machine level and in one place when the pilot wants that to happen. This is quite a bit different from having the pilot just lean back and let a computer fly the whole deal.

-ml