Steps to beat the new autoplay "feature" (More like a bug in my opinion).....
....click read more

1. Install Firefox and start using it as your browser :http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
2. Install the Greasemonkey plugin for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fire... (you will need to restart after the installation of the plugin)
3. Install the following script for Greasemonkey: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/8...

After following these steps when you visit youtube with Firefox the autoplay button stays off.

You can also get rid of the grey bar all together by installing the Firefox adblock plus plugin (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo

x/addon/1865/) and adding the following filters under adblock plus preferences:

youtube.com##DIV#quicklist-tray
youtube.com##DIV#quicklist-bar
youtube.com##DIV#quicklist-bar-container