It is coming
 

Hackers wet dream!!!

Are they gonna build a robot to carry the briefcase full of cash to pay the “landing fees” in Burkina Faso?

Lawsuit reduction.

I know the Atlas pilot family is suing Atlas and Amazon and others for a whole host of claims.

If it's always going to be the mfg's fault, they might as well automate it, then they can at least control it. I think Boeing is likely to make a HUGE push into automation as well after the Max disaster (ie don't assume person in loop is a reliable safety factor especially on low time overseas pilots with poor local MX - yes, a bad design as well). Amazon has to be on board after Atlas and the claims against them from that crash.

Cargo would be a reasonable place to start this, though I would have expected somewhere overseas.

Going to take a while, but will happen. A few more Atlas pilots hiding their work histories, crashing, then suing their company and plane manufacturer and customers may help it move along more quickly.

Amazon is getting slammed for overworking and mistreating their ABX pilots as well. Automation has to be a wet dream for them.

Just how is Amazon getting “slammed” exactly?

Half of the US population is afraid to walk outside their door without a mask on. People drive alone in their cars with masks and gloves on. I’m sure these same folks will be waiting on line to fly in a pilotless plane! Cargo may seem like a likely start until one week after ops commence and a plane gets lost, or crashes. Not worried.

Sort of a contrarian view point, but I think this sort of technology might be seen at the pax carriers more than freight, at least initially. Freight pilots are a much smaller cost unit relative to pilots at the pax carriers, where there are many more pilots on payroll. There’s a reason the first prototype, the A350, has windows.

Yeah...because it’s an A350.....it would cost more to change the manufacturing process to no window cutouts. Just saying

That’s an interesting point. Labor is a bigger unit cost for pax carriers but it’s the freight haulers with the cash flow for the cap ex.