The article i quoted talked about total operating cost, which includes relief crew, stopovers and so on. It is still a very small part of the complete cost equation.
Small aircraft might be a possibility, however for those the cost of other parts become a lot more prohibitive which is why many major airlines are phasing out CRJ200 and other similar small aircraft in favor of larger ones (CRJ 900/EMB 190). The biggest sector around the 10 seat mark is the GA/corporate sector, it would be interesting to see if those clients like to fly without pilots.
Dunno about your part of the world, over here datalink becomes mandatory in february 2013 for ANS in core EC states mandatory for all of europe in february 2015. Every aircraft with a new CoA issued from january 1st 2011 on has to be able to use datalink services, there is a grace period without any flight restrictions until february 2013, after that flight restrictions will be imposed. A retrofit period for older aircraft until february 2015 is available, however they will still be subject to flight restrictions from february 2013 on. States could already impose flight restrictions since january 2011, none does though. Communication should be much easier with that, however if you cannot really speak english, reading it might be even more difficult.
It is interesting though that many cite the current operating military UAVs as an example for civil aviation UAVs. The loss rate is several magnitudes higher in that operation than is acceptable within the civil aviation sector. That is without taking losses due to military response into account. Of course in the military that is acceptable as they do not have to run a business among many other things.
Yes, we do have an increasing amount of automation in our planes. However that automation is mainly a tool for human beings and is not able to replace them. The step to replacement is huge, both in needed investment and increased complexity. The gain however is exceptionally small, just the replacement of a couple pilots.