Hard Taskmaster
Thanks Fizz ... My thoughts also.
None of this is about whether they can do this right now.
It's whether they will go down that track at some undefined time in the future.
And why there is even conjecture about that I do not know.
The military is working now on getting pilots out of aircraft, though remote operation is likely to become common before autonomous fighters become a reality.
That may be an interim step for commercial aircraft too.
It will all depend on the economic argument at the time that the technology becomes available.
As for haultrucks vs aircraft ... again, no real comparison was implied.
But 15 years ago autonomous trucks were just somebody's crazy idea.
Now they are a reality. Maybe not perfect yet but they're getting there.
The fact that they are in a pit does not mean they use the pit walls for containment.
In fact the manufacturers have had to build some randomness into their tracking to prevent haul roads rutting from multiple loaded trucks all tracking within millimetres of each other.
And truck drivers salaries constitute a very small percentage of total operating costs. But the equipment owners still perceive real advances by getting rid of them.
And if you think that moving 5 million tonnes of rock from one place to another a few kms away (per truck) is "hardly working" then I'm bl...y glad I don't work for you.