Originally Posted by
Rawhide51
We've been flying the Global Hawk for about 20 years, and that thing has a wingspan larger than the 737. How long before they start moving cargo like that? Unless you're 80 years old, I'm thinking in your lifetime, you will see freight dogs replaced, driverless/augmented cars, and some form of automated airborne personal transport in the next 25 years, if not sooner.
The discussion was about moving people. In that context, it will not happen in my lifetime, and I'm no where near retirement.
For all the reasons mentioned in this post, no matter what the price of the ticket, people will not get on a pilotless plane, passengers are not that stupid. Consider the variables that may or may not exist on current drones. Snow storms, Slick taxi ways, slick high speed turn offs, short runways (SNA,LGA,DCA) Deicing, and the thousands of variables that pilots take into consideration every day.
We agree to disagree.