You can solo fly at age 16 after ~30 hours in an aircraft, so about the same. Also, many students take drivers ed. Now commercial flying is far more involved, but so is driving big rigs.
Wow what country are you in where you only get a few weeks of training? It's a year+ in Australia.
USA.
Which states don't first issue learner's permits? I had one for a year.
You don't get issued a learner's permit if you are over 18 in most states that I am aware of.
Oh, that is probably right. I didn't think about that.
Same in the UK. There's no mandatory number of hours lessons you need to accumulate before taking your test; if you (somehow) pass having had no lessons at all you're good to go.