Originally Posted by
BizJetJock
I don't fear automation; as you say there are many things that it is potentially better at than humans. There are also things it is not so good at.
But to my mind the principal argument to say that it is not yet ready is reliability. How many times a day do crews around the world cope with failures? Not necessarily anything major, but enough that if they didn't intervene the aircraft would be in trouble.
Only when that figure is damn close to zero will we be ready for a fully autonomous aircraft.
The reliability is there, if manufacturers (and customers) will pay for it. That's not the problem.
Don't take today's aircraft as a guide, they're designed knowing that there's a crew to take over (and take the blame) when things go wrong. Airspeed disagree? autopilot trips off, let the crew figure out what's wrong. Failed AOA sensor causing the aircraft to trim nose down? - don't worry the crew will handle it even if we don't tell them about it. And so on.
An aircraft designed from the ground up for autonomous operation will be a very different beast.