My only experience with them is with an older Raymarine and my current Simrad. Both were/are connected to the chart plotter and would follow a route. I use this feature often. When following a route, both of them require a confirmation before they will automatically make a course change of greater than 10 deg. It sounds a steady beep when it wnats to turn and all I need to do is push a button to confirm the turn. I like this feature because it makes me look over my shoulder before it turns in front of a passing boat or just to make sure that the turn is reasonable. There have been times when the GPS got erratic reading while heading through narrow steep sided passes. Had I had it in follow the route (Nav) mode and it not had this feature, I could easily have been on the rocks. I am very cautious about where I use this mode, but I do use it a lot.

I didn't know that some auto pilots don't require turns to be confirmed when following a route. I think that is very dangerous.