Originally Posted by
gloopy
Not even remotely close to that. They are off by many decades.
Like I said, you can fully automate planes right now...if you are OK with drone like safety levels. RC, Robot, internal or external, whatever, can already be used to fly a CAT III approach. Big deal. Its the complex management of all systems during an emergency as well as decision making and redundancy that it can't even come remotely close to doing at anywhere near the same universe of costs. Humans are simply WAY cheaper. I can't blame Musk for trying to break off some more of that sweet Uncle Sugar gravy train money though.
All of these problems are addressable, you can add human operators if systems are deferred. However, this is really not an issue, since if redundancy is lost, the aircraft would land at the nearest suitable airport. This is like saying we can't go below having 4 engines, because if one fails we can't make it to the destination. Is a two engine jet more costly, than a four engine jet, according to you it is. On top of that, a self driving car is ridiculously more complicated, than an autonomous aircraft. No matter how much you are in denial, this will happen, and soon.