I'm so old that one of my first pocketknives, or more likely my first, was an automatic given or sold to me by my next door neighbor with my
parents' permission, back before Sal Mineo movies and the Feds' concern with them.

At present, I own only one automatic, a Benchmade Emerson-design "tanto" with simple but very safe push-button release which is a very
secure lock against folding. I bought it because I really like the design. In MA, "switchblades" are legal to possess, illegal to carry. This is
not much of a loss, since I can draw and open a Spyderco Endura faster than I can the Emerson-design knife. However, these days, I carry
neither (I never carried the Emerson). While I fully recognize the general utility of a knife as a defensive weapon, it doesn't appear to me
to fit my circumstances. For utility, I carry a SAK. If I needed a real knife more often, I would carry the Spyderco.

The one offensive (not exactly applicable to my circumstances) advantage of the Emerson is that it is very easy to deploy silently,
much more so than the Spyderco or most locking non-automatics.