bubbers44;
I think automation has made our work and the transport industry much safer in the various trades made to achieve it but it isn't automation alone that's done it. The lessons which gave rise to SOPs, the introduction of CRM, TCAS, and EGPWS and safety programs like FOQA/FDM and SMS for example, came at a very high price but they too, have reduced risk and lowered the accident rate. These are pretty straightforward, non-spectacular, sensible advances which are easy and reasonably inexpensive to implement, learn and check. Automation is only a tool but its use and what it is tending to replace are requiring some re-thinking.