Are You Ready to Fly Without a Human Pilot?

When are we going to learn that technology cannot do everything. I would never get on board an aircraft without a trained and experienced human in the cockpit.

Ill walk first before R2D2 flies my plane, have you ever had your computer crash ? its upsetting , but a plane crash is more upsetting. auto ppilot with human back up is just fine dr bob Thousand

Maybe, about fifty years after self-driving cars are commonplace, for short-haul and VFR only for the first 50 years, maybe.

There is no way I would want to fly in a plane without a pilot & copilot, even if they are just sitting in the cockpit in case of an emergency and the computer is flying the plane. Another factor that I didn't see here is, if the plane doesn't have pilots then, what if the computer fails and flies into a downtown skyscraper (Like 911). The lost is not just the people on the plane but everyone on the ground. Even if I'm on the ground I want to know that there are pilots in that plane overhead.

How about a remote pilot? He (or she) sits in an enclosed cubicle ready to take over in the case of any emergency. While the "no pilot needed" aircraft takes off and flies the passengers to their destination (saving the airlines a fortune in labor costs) the remote pilot can be ready to take over in case an emergency occurs for not only 1 but several aircraft. Nope, not me. I'll pay a few bucks more to have a real pilot and co-pilot with a real self interest to get their selves and the rest of us down safely.

i need something with a soul and a lot to lose flying me. we benefit from a pilot’s survival instincts

That was a very good "read". I love automation but it needs to be implemented just as the article suggests. Same with automobiles. I think we will see a lot of automation but I'm not sure we'll EVER embrace totally autonomous "driverless" cars. I could be wrong but there's just too much liability with that level of automation in my opinion.

Not yet but I can well imagine it in the next ten or twenty years.

There's an old joke about that. First fully automated plane gives passenger brief while awaiting take off. At the end it says set back relax, don't worry, nothing can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong,...

I tend to be a nervous flyer anyway, but at least I know there are two qualified pilots in the cockpit in case something goes wrong. NO WAY IN HELL would I consider getting on a plane with no one in charge in case of an emergency!

No. Just no. Not now. Not ever. Not for any possible savings. System failure. Human error in programming. Hacking. Nope!

I'm quite sure that a sizable number of passengers wouldn't care one bit if they could save a buck or two.

When they get cellphones to work 100% of the time then we may be ready for autonomous flying!

BIG DOG

Baby steps. The coming pilot shortage will force flights to have one pilot monitoring an automated plane.

The problem with driverless cars are the cars that still have drivers in them as you never know what one might do. If they were all driverless and operating in a prescribed order instead of the current chaos it would be a great system. Gone would be the days of a car load of teenagers taking a mustang or whatever around a curve or over a hill too fast and finding a tree to tragic results. Also, all those addicted to texting and can't stop to safely drive can just sit back in their driverless cars and text away. Airplanes will probably have an easier time becoming pilotless do to the inherent order of the system. It is the future. Embrace it.

I'll believe AIs can fully substitute humans as pilots when six-year-olds are allowed to fly commercially.

I'm thinking the question is around commercial aircraft, so no, net yet for me. However, be careful of the word 'fly' since it's already happening: https://www.thenational.ae/uae/watch-first-flight-of-dubai-s-self-flying-taxi-1.661625

UBER AIR LINERS JUST TO SAVE MONEY? Who's Kidding WHOM?.................C

" Are you ready to fly without a human pilot?" Nope!!

IF I wouldn't, under ANY circumstances ride in a driverless car, there's ABSOLUTELY NO WAY IN HELL I'd fly in a plane without a HUMAN PILOT! SORRY! NO WAY!

Can you imagine the amount of stink generated by the pilot unions, come the day these systems are proven reliable beyond a doubt? . . . . like that when losing the radio operator, navigator, and flight engineer of years ago.

Maybe....When you can get a computer to think but not react, when you can get a computer to reason, not select from a pre-programmed list of functions that may or may not be the solution to the problem, when you can teach a computer about weather in order to turn on the seat belt sign before it flies directly into cumulonimbus clouds at 320 kts in the descent, maybe I’ll take a ride......then again maybe not!

Driverless trains were introduced on one of the London Underground lines back in 1971. They still put a driver in their to watch what's going on, presumably in the belief its needed for public confidence. Rail is a very controlled environment. Could this perceived resistance to automated operation ever be overcome in avation?

The technology is here to get this done. Autonomous aircraft will need to be rigorously tested and proven before the government, airlines, and the public accept it. I think this transition will happen sooner than people expect.