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The modern airplane is fairly heavily automated, and probably could be piloted from afar. But we choose to mandate a pilot on board. I suspect a similar situat
by greggarious 9y ago
The modern airplane is fairly heavily automated, and probably could be piloted from afar. But we choose to mandate a pilot on board.
I suspect a similar situation will play out for trucks.
I suspect that truckers, like pilots, may see wages stagnate and longer hours, but the profession won't disappear anytime soon.
- DoubleCribble 9y agoMu impression is most commercial flights are largely run on autopilot. AFAIK, pilots typically only get involved for takeoff, landing, flight path changes and abnormal events. If last-mile piloting was a thing, I'm sure the airlines would try to cut costs by getting rid of the crew for the auto-pilot segments. It seems trivial for an automated truck to pull off the highway and wait for a trucker to deliver a vehicle, yet impossible for an aircraft to hold at 30k feet and wait for a pilot.
- silvestrov 9y agoA huge difference is that when something goes wrong with a truck then the autopilot can just apply the brakes and let the truck come to a halt and wait for help. That doesn't work with airplanes.
- greggarious 9y ago>It seems trivial for an automated truck to pull off the highway and wait for a trucker to deliver a vehicle, yet impossible for an aircraft to hold at 30k feet and wait for a pilot. I think many people will not like the idea of sharing a highway with an unmanned truck. I've done my fair share of driving (including a couple cross country drives to SF for internships), and the scariest parts usually involved passing or being in close proximity to semis.