Ah but Nick....autopilots on helicopters....get real....the cheapass operator mentality would still suggest they are already paying the pilot so why spend the dollar and a half more. The manufacturers will have to find a way around that if they ever hope to provide the "seatweights" with truely modern kit.
One man's opinion here......just like a very large Arabian oil company that continues to operate Bell 212's at night over water with no visible horizion or surface lights and tells the pilots it is not IMC/IFR thus both legal and safe without SAS/SCAS/Sperry kit.