3 ms·

Plane autopilot doesn't have to deal with obsticles. It has to fly in a straight line with very gradual adjustments. Driving is magnitudes more complex, context

• Udik 8y ago
  On the other hand, if you set an airplane autopilot against a mountain, it will happily go there and crash. And try to make an airplane in autopilot land safely in the same way they did with this car.
• Retric 8y ago
  Airborne collision avoidance system are part of both civil and military aviation. If nothing else Aircraft do need to deal with mountains. Military aircraft go a step further and avoid hills. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrain-following_radar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrain-following_radar
  • kpil 8y ago
    This is even less complicated than an adaptive cruise control system. If you point it to in the general direction of a mountain, it very much depends on luck if the descent is possible or not.
    • Retric 8y ago
      Terrain-following is significantly more complex than the most basic forms of adaptive cruse control. Radar works much better for tracking discrete objects moving at different speeds than mapping 3d terrain. This is why adaptive cruse control will often hit stationary objects and generally disengage at low speeds. Remember, the aircraft needs to avoid everything in a line in front of it. But, they also want to stay as low as possible to avoid enemy radar, so it also wants steer steer around hills and even trees vs simply going up.