The Autopilot chip: the boost picked in hindsight
Autopilot moves the ×2 boost onto whichever driver in your lineup actually scored most that round. The choice is made after the race, not before it.
The chip removes not lineup risk but boost risk. You still pick the drivers yourself and in advance; what you no longer have to guess is which of them will fire.
Its gain is therefore the difference between your best-scoring driver and the one you would have boosted yourself. If those would have been the same driver, the chip returned nothing.
That gives the rule: Autopilot is worth more when the lineup is flat and unpredictable — four or five drivers of similar strength, any of whom might win the round. With one obvious favourite the chip is close to useless, because you would boost them anyway.
A good setting is rain, a safety car, any race with a wide spread of outcomes. A bad one is a comfortable win by the strongest driver, visible before qualifying even starts.
Autopilot does not affect the Extra DRS chip: that one adds a separate ×3 boost, and its driver is chosen in advance as usual.
The other chips
Common questions
Does Autopilot pick my drivers for me?
No, you build the lineup yourself. The chip only moves the ×2 boost onto the best of the drivers you already picked.
What if the best driver was boosted anyway?
Then the chip changes nothing, and it has been spent for no gain.