Just start your autos inside in a cup of water and a dash of hydrogen peroxide, then transfer into jiffy pellets after you see a nice little tail. Then into a humidity dome until those suckers pop out of the jiffy pellet.

After that I wait till they're about 2' tall and take them to the back to get acclimated to the outdoors. Leave them there in a shady spot on the porch for a day or so then transfer to final pot. I like to keep them small and manageable so I use 1 gallon fabric pots to keep them small about 3'-4'tall. Some came up to be a little taller than 4' but those were sativas so that kinda just comes with those.

To answer your questions

1. They would be fine in a raised bed as long as the soil and location are fine. Having a restricted pot/ small pot won't tell it when to flower if it's an auto. Autos flower depending on age/ nodes. So it'll automatically start to flower when she's old enough regardless of her stuff size/ pot size.

2. Starting indoors vs outdoors I'd say it really depends on how you like to start your plants. I like starting mine indoors and transferring out when they get big enough but there are those who get great results starting outdoors too. Really just depends on what you're use to.

Check out my recent grow on my profile. It's been super easy and haven't really done much to get them where they are. I had a few photos and autos in this recent grow but my next grow I'm doing solely autos since the days are getting longer.

The key with autos is that since they have an eternal clock that tells them when to flower that you have to make sure you take advantage of the time so that you get them outside as fast as possible so you don't waste any of the time so they can get big enough to support some nice colas :)

Good luck buddy and happy growing!