Remote hold startups are common- you don't need external monitoring these days. However I think we are dismissing the traction problem to easily. Moving 80 tons of aeroplane through 2 untreaded nosewheel tyres on wet, oily aprons and taxiways with some quite significant slopes (I saw on the north side of AMS yesterday a significant slope up to a bridge)? I really can't see it. I don't think we can dismiss all the pushback crews yet- so if we have to retain them for wet , windy days, the savings are not really there- or we accept on those days, operations will be disrupted.
I know the pressure is on to make sales, but we really need to see this thing prove itself instead of hearing all the hype. If it works, it will sell itself. The only answer is to get a system working and demonstrate it.
What taxi speeds is this thing anticipated to produce?