IMO, political and business interests who are enamored with tech, innovation, and change at all costs, and for their own sake, will rush into this with catastrophic consequences.

Not forever, but it will be set back decades due to political backlash.

Yup.

The fundamental problem with auomated airlines (and other vehicles) is you need operators, manufacturers, customers, regulators, and politicians to all be in agreement. And in the case of airplanes *somebody* has to make a VERY large investment, with an ROI timeline of decades. Politicians and airline CEO's don't get ahead by looking at the long-term, so really that will be up to the airframers (who will need some degree of assurance that it can be certified and sold). Chicken or Egg?

I don't think a robot could ever move these switches, I think we're safe.

File this in the "just because we can doesn't mean we should" drawer...

The FAA has been working on CPDLC for 15+ years and you don't see yet in domestic airspace. By the time they're ready for pilotless aircraft we'll be using Star Trek transporters.

There is no such thing as an impenetrable network, and that one reason is why we won’t have single pilot airplanes.

True. However, if we can sell a seat cheap enough, and management keeps or increases their bonuses, stockholders get their returns, and losses are acceptable, almost everybody wins.

Trying to antagonize IBM?

We will have single pilot cargo ops within 15-20 years if not sooner. My money is on 10-15 years. Single pilot passenger ops will come 10-15 years after the cargo carriers. Single pilot assisted by remote pilot on the ground. The pilot is there to override in case of emergency, computer hack, or loss of contact with ground station. Don’t kid yourselves... it’s coming. And a lot sooner than everybody thinks. I hope I’m wrong.

The time is now to put it in contract that we will require 1000+ an hour if they want single pilot ops. Regardless of the circumstances.