It's coming folks, and you aren't going to stop it.
This is true. But “it” is coming for every human endeavour - there is nothing that can’t be automated. Even posting to PPRuNe (Although I think that this has already happened, judging by some contributions...)
The point I am trying to make is that an autonomous aircraft has to play nice with the rest of the infrastructure which was designed, built for and still in use by humans and I remain unconvinced that aeroplane manufacturers understand how difficult that might be, especially when it comes to certification. Making something that takes off and lands by itself and even taxies to the gate is not hard; it is covering the enormous set of edge cases that aircraft encounter several of daily that is the hard bit, as it is for self-driving cars.