ALCON,
Bar, 80, Elvis, Blastoff, Johnso, etc. (Apologies if I missed someone in the discussion.)
Bottom line: I don't EVER see a pilot-less airliner.
This same topic/thread was started by Forgot to Bid about 6-9 months ago.
People argue the liability, financial feasibility, & all sorts of other ideas. My discussion, granted it may be playing the "devil's advocate" at times, is I can see, in the next 20 years, the possibility of "REDUCED CREWS". Imagine a FedEx 777 needing only one crew to fly from Beijing to Memphis instead of two? How about a Delta 777 departing ATL - DUB w/ one crew? Possible? The plane still has "pilots" aboard the aircraft. These pilots just relinquish control to remote operation long enough during the "cruise" portion of the flight to be legally rested when it's their turn to land the plane in either ATL or DUB. Or an emergency alternate, taking the risk away from the crew, remotely operating it from the ground.
That's all.
GJ