The way I see it going is that the oral communications will no longer be established. I think that everything will be digitally controlled, including ATC clearances.
A computer commanded rejected take-off would automatically flash a caution light on the ATC radar screen with the appropriate message.
The airplane navigates itself monitored by remote operators, ATC issues separation clearances that the aircraft confirms digitally, again with a EGPWS and TCAS override just in case ATC makes a mistake.
Weather avoidance, FIR boundary negotiation, reroutes and the weather/fuel/NOTAM decisions that come with them, monitoring alternates, redispatch legalities, fuel scoring, plotting in case the FMS craps out, dealing with medical emergencies, dealing with violent pax, dealing with system failures, spotting system failures (lots of times no flags are raised), engine trend monitoring, PIREP's, coordinating ride reports on # 2, reporting ELT's, relaying VHF messages for ATC....
You nicely summed up all the "cruise" jobs that can be taken over by an autonomous system and remote operators. VHF is made to disappear progressively, see above.
I' m surprised to see that so little people are informed about all recent progress in this matter. Here take this website, you will learn alot.
ASTRAEA Website - Home
You can say that I am nuts, but would you dare to say that EADS, Bae Systems, Thales, Rolls Royce, GE Aviation, FAA, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman are too?
Unmanned flight tests to advance airline reduced-crew concepts
The race to unmanned commercial flight has started and whether you like it or not, it will come.
Critics and sceptics, I understand you.
This thing will be a social bloodbath for the piloting industry, but it will come.
The technology being developed by ASTRAEA will address issues such as Ground Operations and Human Interaction; Communications & Air Traffic Control; UAS Handling; Routing; Collision Avoidance; Multiple Air Vehicle Integration; Prognostics & Health Management; and Decision Modelling.
ASTRAEA is a three-year programme in its first phase and it is intended that it will pave the way for commercial UASs to operate autonomously in non-segregated airspace within the next decade.
Half of the funding for ASTRAEA is therefore being provided by public sector organisations - £5 million from the TSB and £11 million from the regions - and the rest from a consortium of UK companies, including BAE Systems, Thales UK, Rolls-Royce, EADS, QinetiQ, Flight Refuelling and Agent Oriented Software.