Its not just the technology required to get the plane off the ground and back on in a safe manner. What about the integration with ATC, integration with airports, handling of diversions, handling of emergencies. Its not just about flying from A to B.
Exactly . I like your analogy with man on the moon, not to mention the Safety case on that one .
I am in my onw area currently arguing with engineers regarding implementation of fully automated ATC in periods of low traffic. Machine issuing instructions for separation , the whole lot. The technology is there already ,using machine learning ( Artificial Intelligence ) One of their main augments is : "if it works with Tesla, why not with aircraft ? "
No need to post arguments here against that statement , I know them and used them. But one thing that scare the S* *t ..out of them is their personal liability in case the machine they designed gets it wrong.