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Automated: yes. Autonomous: no. There's a fundamental difference between the two. Airplane autopilots are basically scripted, and operate fully within the para
by w0utert 9y ago
Automated: yes. Autonomous: no.
There's a fundamental difference between the two. Airplane autopilots are basically scripted, and operate fully within the parameters set by the pilot. There is almost no intelligence, and very little adaptivity there. The pilot needs to reprogram the autopilot manually when the flight plan changes, for example. Flight conditions can change in many ways that require the autopilot to be reprogrammed, reconfigured, or even switched off. Airplanes have actually crashed more than once because the pilot configured the autopilot incorrectly.
I don't know much about trains, except that fully automating without adapting all the rail infrastructure is more difficult than you would imagine, for example because there is basically no standardization in how semaphores are placed, for example.
- cmurf 9y agoFAA flight plan plus an IFR clearance is basically a script. Before autopilots, the pilot followed that script, without radar, with waypoint and next fix ETA reporting by radio. And it has a fallback in place for lost communications, the flight is expected to fly and land at its destination per it's clearance (or most recently amended version of it). And the fallback also includes the possibility of being unable to land at the destination, and instead having to go to the specified alternate in the flight plan. http://delta.jepptech.com/jifp/help/Images/FAAFlightPlan.gif http://delta.jepptech.com/jifp/help/Images/FAAFlightPlan.gif
- diggernet 9y agoThanks for this. I wish there was more awareness of the distinction. Too many comments here are describing automated things as autonomous.