I really don't see why anyone would just sit there in autonomous mode. There's so much you can do, and there's so many people on CD willing to help you. Use other people's code! that's the whole reason they post it. They want to help you.
On that note, a simple and really effective autonomous mode is described in detail
here.
There's no reason every robot in FIRST can't have a good autonomous mode. I think it would make the competition a lot more exciting. Right now most of the time spectators sit there bored for the first 15 seconds.