What part is the autonomous part?

The robot does nothing without human input.

I'm the robotic coordinator for our operating room. We have two robots and you're right, they're very expensive, but we have no shortage of doctors who are trained in robotic surgery. One of our newest surgeons did 2 years of nothing but robots at USC in his fellowship. I have more doctors wanting to do cases then I have time to do them. They would operate 12 hours a day, 7 days a week if I let them.

Doctors don't have to be trained on robotic surgery during residency. It's nice if they can be, but Intuitive has extensive training programs and proctors. I'm sure other robotic surgery companies have similar training programs. About half of my current surgeons didn't train in residency or had minimal training when robotics was new.