The money is being spent right now, as usual, by the military.
There are autonomous aircraft currently operational delivering cargo.
Autonomous.
Not remotely controlled.
They will do the heavy lifting on this one, and as time progresses and the safety benefits become apparent the civil world will follow.
The reason they will want to follow is not the safety aspect, that will merely justify it.
The benefit from their perspective is the extra passenger space, reduced weight and the drop in wages.
How many pilots per aircraft does your airline have?
Do away with all those wages. All those pensions. All those uniforms. All those medicals. All those hotel rooms. All those crew meals. All that training.
That's worth a few billions.