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You don't think the novelty and risk associated with a fully automated system that's still in the experimental stages warrants any immediate caution? Commercia
by DannoHung 14y ago
You don't think the novelty and risk associated with a fully automated system that's still in the experimental stages warrants any immediate caution?
Commercial planes have had autopilot for years, but they still require at least the pilot or co-pilot to sit behind the yoke.
When driverless cars have had a few million or billion hours without statistically significant incidents, I think we'll see the laws adapt to not even requiring a human fail-safe.
- neurotech1 14y agoActually, for commercial airliners its "worse". They require both a pilot and co-pilot behind the yoke, even in autopilot. If an airliner is flown with less than two crew in the cockpit, even for a short period of time, the remaining pilot/co-pilot must wear a mask when flying above 25,000ft.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoAirliners used to have a third crew member, the Flight Engineer, but that job has been automated into oblivion.
- neurotech1 14y agoA friend mentioned that non-scheduled (no passengers or commercial freight) flights in large aircraft (eg. 737) can still operate with a single-pilot and a rated flight engineer only. The pilot had to have her mask on (or clipped to the helmet) for the entire flight. This option is rarely done commercially, obviously.