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Where do you think we are in fully autonomous planes. Curious if that problem is easier or harder than cars.
by scsilver 6y ago
Where do you think we are in fully autonomous planes. Curious if that problem is easier or harder than cars.
- sn_master 6y agoPlanes have centralized Air Traffic Control that dictates every move from take off until landing of all planes within their zone. The planes only have to follow the ATC orders and not worry about other planes except for very rare emergencies. Even in those, ATC usually gives them a large block away from other planes to sort things out. Cars in comparison can start at any moment, from any location and want to go anywhere they like without knowing what other cars are doing, or -worse- the road conditions (potholes, ice etc). Putting blame is also easier, because legally all pilots agree to be recorded while flying since they're doing business. It'll be much harder I guess to allow recording inside cars.
- scsilver 6y agoCould atc ramp scale in its ability to handle a denser set of planes? Could a network of planes host a decentralized atc that manages the traffic, similar to a decentralized road traffic control that would help manage automated cars through a 5g conmection in a city.
- sn_master 6y agoATC isn't only about managing traffic. Each region's government has their own rules and they can choose to enforce new rules at anytime (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaTv1vAC3W8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaTv1vAC3W8). How would you enforce a 9/11 like shutdown in a decentralized system? Or if the Internet goes down? The closest thing to that are collision avoidance systems that instruct pilots to go up/down by talking to one another and agreeing on a plan for a particular situation.
- refurb 6y agoPlanes aren’t anywhere close to fully autonomous. There is always a pilot communicating with ATC, providing data, receiving and validating instructions and then entering them to the flight computer.