Autonomous vehicles make perfect sense for risky situations where using a manned vehicle would be putting someone at unnecessary risk: So we're seeing a lot of inroads being made deep underwater and underground. If it's a dangerous/hostile environment and someone's life would be at risk to go there, I think it's great to see autonomous alternatives becoming available.
Aviation certainly becomes risky when people are shooting at you - hence the interest the military have in autonomous and remotely operated aircraft. Not only is the F35 often mooted to be "the last ever manned fighter", but apparently Lockheed would like people with large wallets to believe it will be available as an autonomous variant:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...501288_pf.html
Whether the F35 can operate without a pilot or not, wars are inherently dangerous places that it makes sense to avoid putting people if you have the technical ability.
However, one hopes that RPT will never be regarded as so dangerous that it would be worthwhile to avoid putting someone "in harms way" up the front?