Safety, safety, safety?
What would happen to a fully automated, pilotless aircraft that flies through a flock of birds, knocking out both engines at low level, in the middle of a major city like New York?
What would happen if the thrust commanded of the engines on a 777, close to Heathrow, didn't materialise due to a design flaw? What decisions would an autopilot make? Continue to command more thrust? Or come up with a inventive, intelligent, life saving solution?
Classic Man vs Machinery arguments. The argument has been comprehensively won by an interaction of the two. Do you engineers do CRM courses?
First off, Sully was an extremely well diversely trained pilot with over 20k hrs. The common trend towards reliance on automation is breeding quite the opposite in modern pilots. Speaking towards the future I think a pilot on the ground would have the same chances ditching as one in the cockpit, further in the future a totally automated aircraft may be better equipped to ditch than the dying breed of hands on pilots that are still out there.
All adverse scenarios are studied and I am sure will be applied, automation will be updated as the unforeseen (like it always has) gives us something to learn from.
I am sorry, no intent to jab at pilots but I feel you are foolish not to look at history and realize the only thing certain about the future is change. Take the trend aviation has been on and apply it reasonably to the future. Like I had mentioned above, the USA has cleared UAV's for class B airspace and is dumping money into building ADS-B sites. The world does not want verbal communication between aircraft and ground FANS. THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL Artie, all you have to do is read it. Sure hope you have no plans to encourage your children or grandchildren to become pilots.