I can see robots taking over the cargo flights,
There was a study many years ago, and I wonder where it is now. The Soviet Union had developed High wing amphibian a/c with over wing engines for cargo flights. The idea was they would take of & land on water and fly in ground effect similar to the Albatross. Indeed that might have been their name. Slow ponderous transoceanic a/c., but at lower fuel burn/kg than a conventional freight a/c and faster than ship. They could fly on a preprogrammed route as per a cruise missile, but still controlled as an RPV via satellite. Ship avoidance was an issue, but perhaps an onboard radar system would solve that. Weather systems and jet streams were of less significance; although low level storms and high waves might make it interesting, but no sick bags required. Any losses would be purely financial and insurance would take care of those.
Take off and landing at sea would negate any fiddly performance issues such as climb % etc. No V1 just full power and go. No noise issues except for fish. They could be taxied, takeoff, landed under local visual RPV control and monitored en-route via a central RPV control.
So what did happen to the idea?