Accessing a custom object with instanceof

Ah, because it's not already an object, got it.

Why don't the docs cover this? They say the autoloader will instantiate it. 

https://codeigniter.com/user_guide/datab...sults.html

Incorrect example in the documentation.
The documentation uses the User class without a namespace, so just 'User' is passed as a parameter.
If the class uses a namespace, then it must also be specified.