Originally Posted by
esscee
Any computer is only as good as the input information to it plus its own "100%" solid safe operating software. You only have to consider the situation of Windows 10 and the many problems of nearly every "Update".
This I think is this biggest argument against automation.
The perspective I proposed is, in an era of concern over the competence and authenticity of airline pilots, you can guarantee quality performance by changing to computer systems which deliver consistency and can be made aware of every known parameter, procedure, and optimum failure response, apart from being largely immune to the temptations of doing things that are not supposed to be done.
The argument is $Billions can be invested in your pilot because your pilot is exactly the same as everybody else's flying the same aircraft type. Your pilot can know more than any human pilot because your pilot will have millions of man-hours of training. Your pilot will have been tested for thousands upon thousands of hours in the most extreme and rare situations. Clever aeronautical engineers will have honed your pilot to the pinnacle of precision.
The logic is irresistible.
Until you spend a few hours on the internet.
We are all exposed to websites which are chronically inept and dysfunctional. These are usually from large, global organisations with huge revenue streams at stake. Companies with super sophisticated and super expensive IT departments. Yet they punt out endless persistent rubbish. I totally fail to understand why a) software engineers create crap and b) testers do not pick up the problems (having been both a software developer and a tester during my working life).
So the calculation then becomes do you want to risk your life (or your massive aeronautical colossus) on slightly flawed but mainly very, very effective human pilots, or choose a digital nirvana where virtually anything is possible but history shows if there is a cock-up that can be made, it somehow can't be ruled out?
If only we knew what Boeing and Airbus are thinking...