I have been looking into the use of Autocontrollers that are only in BF2142 and what I am finding out really has me stoked about the possible uses in First Strike.   Autocontroller code allows for automated weapons systems.   This is similar to the many of the weapon positions in Battlefront where the capital ships  and co-pilot weapons are fired automatically.   But players can jump in a position and take over anytime, unlike when a bot occupies it and doens't want to give it up.  This can also insure that all the turbo lasers are active on the Deathstar, instead of just ones that a player jumped in because there were no more tie-fighters available.  In single player/coop, you won't have wait on bots to man your space/air craft, as you will always be fully armed and you will never have to worry about the bots leaving before you get to the fight.   Another bonus is that this allows for placement of automated weapons systems around the map that are always active and in hard to reach areas.

   It's hard to believe, but Dice actually included explanations in the code for the the Autocontroller settings:

An auto controller allows you to have the AI control a playerControlObject of a weapon or vehicle
This way you can create automatic weapons like the sentry gun in Battlefield 2142.

Explanation of properties:

operatesAlone: If this is set to 0 the AI will only be activated if a player enters another pco of the vehicle.  E.g. You could have an automatic cannon on a vehicle that will activate and help the player driving the vehicle

scanningSpeed: This is the speed at which the AI will scan the area for enemies. Make sure that the MaxSpeed and Acceleration of the rotational bundle is set up so that the AI isn't restricted by it.

fov: Field of view of the AI in degrees
   
viewDistance: view distance of the AI in meters

useSiren: if 1 the weapon will warn before opening fire. A horn template must be added to the AltFire button

reactionTime:Time between first noticing an enemy and opening fire.

targetLostTimeout: time that AI will continue to look in the direction it last saw the enemy after it has lost sight of him.

sendFireWarning: will add flashing icon to minimap when firing

reportEnemiesToTeam: will report target enemy to team

allowTakeOver: will allow player to enter position of autoController. AutoController will be activated again when player exits pco.

maxTrackingInput: this is the maximum steering input allowed for the autoController while tracking an enemy. Decrease this is you want it to aim slower.

checkLineOfFire: AI will not fire if a friendly soldier is in it's line of fire

discoverCloakedEnemiesDistance: AI will detect enemies within this distance even if they are cloaked

flipOutAtHealth: autoController will flip out when it's health goes below this value (0.1 = 10 percent of full health)

scanningInputScale: input to rotational bundle will be scaled with this value when autoController isn't firing and isn't flipping out. Use this to get a smooth scanning motion while still letting the rotation bundle keep a high maximum rotational speed (this is good when flipping out)
            
scanningSpeedWhenFlippingOut : use this scanning speed when the autoController flips out

reloadOnTeamChange : used only by the missile silos to force a reload delay of the weapon after it has been captured

onlyAttackNetworkBattlefieldObjects : if true, this autoController will only attack objects that are reported to it's owners squad. I.e. player who owns the autoController must be in a squad or the autoController will attack nothing. Default is false.
                      
simpleFirePlan: an autoController with this property will do nothing but just fire it's weapon all the time This is used to make the recon drone keep firing as long as it's deployed