it will happen . maybe it will take 30 yrs ,but it will happen.only thing the autos cant do now are . they cant taxi the plane,they cant very sucessfully weather navigate, they arent the best at handling gusty winds that well [A/P on limitation is less than my actual limits].they cant take good decisions.
but all that can be fixed . they say today if you want to replace a human brain you need a computer the size of two newyork cities.
think about it . few years back a pc with 40mb was abig deal, today that damn thing fits in my pda.
gear problem .. it will have a system which can monitor it some other waylike in the NG they dont have viewers any more but another set of lights,so it can be fixed.
DONT GET ME WRONG i am a training captain with a major airline withe some 27 yrs to go. but my children will not be encouraged by me to take flying up as a career.
as far as things stand today .i will not step on a automated cocpit where the pilot only has to reboot the machine. wait a minute maybe they can do it from the ground........... happy landings