Would you get on an autonomous plane?

pgj2015

Heard something about this on the radio lately. I 100% will never fly again if they introduce autonomous planes, I know the plane nearly flies itself now but there are still 2 pilots on board if anything goes wrong. I think you need to be crazy to get on a plane with no pilots.

eviltimeban

If there was some kind of crew on the ground looking after it, then sure. They can fly unmanned rockets into space and dock them with space stations; they can probably fly you to Malaga easily enough.

fryup

driverless cars driverless planes can't see it happening tbh

pleasant Co.

Of course, I use operator-less elevators all the time.

Apiarist

Yes. Pilotless plane makes more sense than a driverless car, as the flight takes place on a more predictable route.

Ray Palmer

Don't think the OP ever watch air plane crash shows. It is pretty much the pilots fault in most cases. Even when there is a technical fault it seems the pilots reaction is often the issue. A pilot is meant to keep up with the latest information on planes and apparently they don't and worse again with pilots who fly many different models of planes

patmahe

Right now, no. Once the technology has been proven and has a better safety record than a human piloted plane then maybe. But all it will take is one autonomous plane to crash and it will set them back 20 years.

Where pilots earn their money is in things like crosswind landings, what will an autonomous plane do when it runs out of ideas, it has no experience to call on and will only fly as well as the code controlling it was written there is no such thing as bug free software, its all made by people and people are fallible. (Yes I'm aware that pilots are people too, but I'd rather have a plane with a computer and a pilot than just a computer).

thomil

Let's be honest here, whenever you fly commercial, your aircraft will be on autopilot from shortly after takeoff until well into the final descent into your destination. Most of the time when the weather is bad at your destination airport, the plane will be on autopilot until shortly before touchdown, sometimes even until touchdown itself. Autoland capability has been a thing since the days of the Hawker-Siddeley Trident of the 1960s and 1970s. So it's not a big jump for the entire flight to end up being automated. Basically, it's just taxiing for takeoff and to the gate after landing, the takeoff run and the roll-out after landing that need to be automated, and two of those could easily be taken care of by ground tugs.

I think the big question is how fully automated it will be and how secure any ground control links will be in the face of interference or deliberate jamming. I doubt that fully autonomous operation will be a thing for quite some time to come. A more likely scenario is the way that the US run their drone squadrons at the moment: Basically, a control station only provides general parameters for most of the flight but will take direct control in critical situations.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119388730#Comment_119388730

Most of the time the planes can take off and land themselves as well, can't they?

eviltimeban

And don't most accidents occur during either take off or landing?

thomil

Not sure about takeoff, but they can definitely land completely automatically, provided the destination airport has the necessary equipment, primarily a CAT IIIc ILS system. The aircraft needs the right equipment installed as well, primarily the receiving equipment for the ILS, a radar altimeter and ideally a GPS system to back the whole thing up. Most commercial airliners also have automatic braking systems to bring the aircraft to a standstill on the runway. The issue comes with regards to taxiing to the gate, which cannot be done automatically at the moment. Given the complexity of ground environments at major airports like Heathrow, Schiphol, Frankfurt or Atlanta, I don't really think that this part of a commercial flight, from the end of the rollout on the runway to arriving on stand, can be automated anytime soon.

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119389041#Comment_119389041

Given automated cars are being designed to literally do what you are talking about it doesn't sound like it would be hard to add to an aircraft. It would be similar to the move from a train driver being dumbed down to what it is today. They can also add extra sensors to the runways a lot easier than an entire road system. Maybe it as simple as the pilots won't need to be as qualified

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119389041#Comment_119389041

If you are in the updated F-18 you MUST keep you hands off the controls during carrier launch. To get airborne you press the big, red “I Believe” button.

If one of the big military drones crashes it's usually pilot error. Army tend to be better than Air Force because they don't try to fly the thing down.

Having said that the software on aircraft is godawful. Lots of examples of stuff that could not have happened had there been a proper walk through or proper testing.

Fighter jets rebooting because they passed the international date line. The Israelis lost a plane near the Dead Sea because the altitude reading was below sea level. Boeing are scary , planes not able to land on certain runway orientations, the debacle on the space capsule shows it's endemic within the organisation and not just on passenger planes.