I know that some airline bosses dream of the pilotless aircraft, mainly to avoid union discussions I suppose. From what I gather most engineers in the aircraft manufacturers are NOT hot about the idea at all. The reason is simple. While many people are very fast to cite statistics and the 'human factor' in accidents and a potential improvement in accident statistics with pilotless aircraft the manufacturers on the other hand know at least part of the statistics that is missing. They have a faint idea of how many times those by now two biological computers up front have not failed but SAVED the day. The reason why they only have a faint idea is that most of the times the saving went unreported becasue it was 'normal'.
I know it is a PPRuNe fixation that at least one manufacturer is trying to keep the pilots out of the loop, but the reality is quite different.