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No. We use some deterministic automation on the backend for helping with traffic management and rerouting flight paths, but the communication with aircraft is m
by tjohns 2y ago
No. We use some deterministic automation on the backend for helping with traffic management and rerouting flight paths, but the communication with aircraft is mostly done via voice. Everything happens too fast to insert a keyboard in the middle (*), and voice recognition would be too error prone for something safety critical.
(* CPDLC does allow ATC to send texts to/from larger aircraft, but this is only used for things that aren't time sensitive. Voice is still the primary method of control.)
- wkat4242 2y ago[flagged]
- tjohns 2y agoIt also has to listen, and accept complex requests and demands from pilots over a scratchy and occasionally garbled radio link. Have you ever gotten frustrated because Alexa/Siri/etc completely misinterpreted a voice request? Or looked at the quality of YouTube subtitles? That’s still lots of inaccuracy with AI speech recognition. There’s no room for that up there. And yes, the non-deterministic nature is a huge problem given this is the very definition of a life-critical system.
- wkat4242 2y agoI know, but these things can be trained for. Siri/Alexa is 2010 tech, not 2025. And the big benefit is that there's a pretty limited vocabulary and phraseology in aviation. I don't see ATC being replaced yet but in the future perhaps something more automated could happen including more visual instructions.