Originally Posted by
CaliPilot
His argument was that if there are trains and trucks that are run entirely by computers, doing the same jobs that humans did with a higher safety performance, why can't the technology be applied to airplanes?
It can, but what he isn't looking at is that trains and trucks have fewer variables when it comes to normal or emergency operations. If I remember correctly, I remember hearing somewhere that the military has a few UAV's that are pilot-less and run completely by computer programed parameters. It takes weeks for a whole team of programmers to program the mission and contingencies... and this is just for one flight. Imagine the man power needed to program the thousands of flights in each aircraft type/operation each day not to mention the extreme infrastructure changes that would be necessary to facilitate mass UAV operation. On top of that, you would certainly have mass resistance from the traveling public who wont trust these new machines without years of proven safety statistics. Not likely within anyone's lifetime that is alive today.