While handling the bellows, one dreams away leaving action on 'automatic pilot'.
In between, people function as a kind of 'automatic pilot'.
Sometimes intention is caused by habit alone, such as the habit of following a particular route to work on 'automatic pilot' as it were.
Transport is now in free fall, or automatic pilot-whatever metaphor is used—and no one is pushing things forward.
In this case, the automatic pilot had unfortunately failed.
Much of it is obviously put on to the automatic pilot.
The problem is that, in some circumstances, pilots are unable to overrule the automatic pilot.
The automatic pilot being put into operation, they both sit down to write a letter, and, by chance, they write identical letters.