The article says most flying is automated these days. I can see the need for a human in the loop for special conditions. However, humans do make errors, and sometimes act maliciously.
How far are we, do you think, from self-flying planes?
How far are we, do you think, from self-flying planes?
- airports and terminal areas are very busy
- en route diversions can happen anytime due to weather observed in flight
- airports like SFO can be fogged in most any day.
Military drones aren't being landed in busy urban areas.
En route diversions are easy to handle by a rudimentary flight crew and communication equipment. The computer just needs to know the new destination and off it goes. It could even find one on its own, if all the crew is knocked out and all communications have failed.
That being said, people won't trust an AI enough to make this a reality soon. Even though a system more secure than an average pilot is certainly conceivable.
Consider the current ATC data links such as CPDCLC. The pilots read what appears on the screen and press ACCEPT to load the ATC commands into the flight management computer which instructs the autopilot.
Pilots don't land in thick fog, autoland has been doing that for 50 years. If autoland self-aborts they divert to another airport and follow the ILS needles to land there...
TCAS negotiates collision-avoidance in busy airspace and generates emergency action commands for the pilots.
When we've mastered the automation of cars, then we can start turning our eyes to be able to handle planes as well. Just like cars, automating clear and calm days is relatively simple; but most days are neither clear nor calm.
Case in point: FedEx flies into SJC, and the planes on the approach fly low over downtown, and very low over 101, since the end of the runway is right next to 101.
As one conspiracy theory, low pilot pay could be the industry's way of forcing the issue, given the psychological barriers to completely automated flights. Additionally, partial automation leads to lots of boredom for pilots, which could detract from rather than improve safety (full automation avoids that problem).
We should see it happen in our lifetimes, anyways.