Buran (Russian space shuttle) flew to orbit and back without pilots in bad weather conditions (
Buran (spacecraft) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). The risk was reduced somewhat by having no crew at all and by building a HUGE runway in a remote location.
International Space Station supply ship automation turns out to work reasonably well, although emergency remote control possibilities saved the day in a few cases (e.g.
Progress M1 - progress M1-4 part)
Of course none of these ships or their technology are cheap in any possible way, but public funding pays for technology development and both Boeing and EADS (Airbus) are big players in the space industry.
I for one would accept pilot-less flying if an independent authority can produce convincing reliability statistics and backup plans.
However, as passengers might object to flight delays of several years, pilots will be in control for some time to come.