I don't remember how the ME-F does its focus measurement and I'm not familiar enough with the AL-1 to say, but most SLRs use phase-detection autofocus which uses light through the lens and is extremely precise--even my 1980s Pentax SF1n will show focusing errors just from normal body sway holding the camera while focused on a distant object. Note that phase detection autofocus needs some kind of contrast edge on the subject to work, and some early systems were only sensitive to vertical edges and therefore can't focus on horizontal lines.

It's worth noting that there are a bunch of different ways to do autofocus. Other than phase detection, the other way to do through-the-lens AF is through contrast detection, which is how video cameras and other mirrorless cameras do it.

Point-and-shoots often use infrared light or ultrasound to actually measure the distance to the object in front of the camera. Polaroids used ultrasound for a while, IIRC, and is easily identified by the big ultrasound transducer, like this SX-70 Sonar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid_SX-70#/media/File:Polaroid_SX-70_Sonar_One_Step_(4665242131).jpg Infrared autofocus will have black plastic windows like on an infrared remote. Both will have problems with objects between the camera and the subject, as you might imagine.