Whilst automation can vastly improve safety in any form of transportation. In an unsterile environ such as roads most current railways and passenger carrying flight, this is never going to be fulfilled by current technologies. The human eye and mind are simply far to complex to replace.
However it is a positive thing if for instance algorithms can be run as currently do to maintain safe limits of flight to avoid stalls or damaging the AC or in case of railways, remaining within track speeds and braking zones for signals and reacting if the driver fails to respond in time.
This protection is now being applied to many family cars such as the VW radar and adaptive cruise system providing collision warning and intervention at low speed to avoid pedestrian and vehicle impacts by applying the brakes.
Where the mk1 eyeball and most human brains , especially trained ones excel is spotting subtle warnings of impending danger which a machine can never do
Example final approach and taxying AC or ground vehicle spotted encroaching The PIC can then decide if the danger is a threat to the AC and go around
Many other scenarios such as Hudson river where having an experienced PIC prevented a disaster and no current technology would have pulled that off autonomously not to mention communicating with the tower
Recent railway example , one of many on the railways where a driver noticed something amiss from noticing dangerous flood waters near a bridge to livestock on the trackside or dangerous load on another passing train
On this occasion driver had muddy water hit his windscreen passing through Old St tunnel north London and he immediately contacted control . All trains stopped and inspection train sent in at low speed to find massive piling drill bit from building site above penetrated roof and now blocking tracks. Had that been the driverless DLR, the consequences are all to easy to realise.
If you still need a skilled human to take over, then make their workload easier and more pleasant but never remove completely from the equation
I for one would never wish to fly on a pilotless airline
