Reply to post: Re: Nice job

Robot lands a 737 by hand, on a dare from DARPA

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Re: Nice job

If the airlines want it badly enough, they can make it happen. And the airlines *hate* the pilots (more accurately, the pilots' union). Big salaries, publically vocal, nice pensions, strict limits on hours, it's enough to make your average Airline Wall Street CEO quite grumpy.

I can see autonomous systems aiding the pilot/co-pilot first, then the co-pilot goes and is replaced by automation with ground based pilot backup (like a drone operator) and then eventually the pilot is either gone or converted into a glorified bus driver. I don't particularly welcome this scenario (for the reasons you cite) but airlines will do anything to save money, and pilots are one of the few highly-paid, highly skilled unionized workforces out there, and certain political classes would just love to break that one up.

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