When they decide to attack a target they're very reluctant to disengage. They should prioritize staying within some distance (say 50 ls or the maximum range at which they'll use their weapons) over attacking a hostile.

nms 2 Apr 2015:

Wingmen seem to do a better job of this. Autons and freighter escorts should act more like them.

But it would also help if they could all fight on the move: http://ministry.kronosaur.com/record.hexm?id=1588

george moromisato 3 Apr 2015:

I'll take a look.

nms 17 Apr 2015:

This seems to have been implemented in 1.6 beta. Overall it seems better, but there are downsides for some AI ships. More discussion here: https://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7116&start=15#p62936

nms 14 Feb 2017:

I think this could use some more attention. I'm not sure if it was affected by the recent changes related to station guard behavior, but I'm doing a Constellation run and I've been less than satisfied with auton behavior. It seems like while they're following the player, if they get hit by an enemy they'll attack it until it's dead or the player is a substantial distance (70+ ls) away. I think I'd generally prefer they stay within about 25 ls when they're escorting.