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> Yes. I regularly fly in planes, which I have no control over, and which spend most of their time on autopilot. Those planes with their auto-pilot system stil
by pyre 10y ago
> Yes. I regularly fly in planes, which I have no control over, and which spend most of their time on autopilot.
Those planes with their auto-pilot system still have a means for the pilots to intervene. That's not quite the same as being in a vehicle for which no human has the possibility of intervening. (It's also a bit disingenuous to imply that it is.)
- JoshTriplett 10y agoFirst, those pilots are heavily trained and certified, far more than car drivers. And second, far more accidents occur due to humans than due to mechanical failure (and of "mechanical failure", only a subset of those involve incorrect autopilot, though I haven't found that broken out). http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm puts total human causes at 67% (53% of which is pilot error), and mechanical failure at 20%. Some accidents also occur specifically when pilots ignore/override the automatic systems; I'd be interested to see statistics on that, too, but I haven't found any.
- pyre 10y agoDo you have statistics on the number of times that the pilot has to take control because the auto-pilot is unable to cope or is doing the wrong thing? Focusing just human-caused accidents vs. machine-caused accidents ignores this.
- sokoloff 10y agoI don't have the stats, but I have a bit over 1000 hours as a pilot of light aircraft. "What's it doing now?" is a common question in the industry, and the subject of this excellent American Airlines training seminar video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN41LvuSz10&t=21m41s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN41LvuSz10&t=21m41s (The whole video is good, but that's the specific automation confusion question.)