Ask Lemmy

As a pilot, not anytime soon, and not just because I'm worried about my job. Like cars, you can automate 95% of flying pretty easily and for the most part, we already do. But also like cars, that last 5% is several orders of magnitude more difficult.

But cars have a big advantage over planes in automation, if the computer gets totally confused, it can pull over, stop and let the driver figure things out. A plane can't stop flying without hitting the ground so the computer can't give up in an edge case. There's also a different standard for safety. A few dozen teslas slam into walls and not many people care outside of immediate families. 70 people die in a plane crash and it's international news for months.

I figure it'll happen, but not anytime soon. And zero pilots is way more feasible than one pilot. And no way in hell can a robo flight attendant manage a cabin in normal operations let alone an emergency, I don't think that part will ever happen unless we go full synth.

Nope.

Crew know a lot of override and emergency stuff for when systems go wrong and are always the reason planes don't go down when they otherwise would've

Dude, I don't even want to fly on a fully-manned flight with the way these planes are dropping out of the sky these days.

Maybe in like... two centuries.

No. Because in a fully automated flight like that, now you have to worry about the other passengers.

Is it built by Tesla, Meta, Boeing, or some other American corp?

Nope, nope, nope.

No, for fear mostly of fellow passengers more than distrust of the technology.

Private flight though? Maybe, I'll consider that

Ha, fuck no. Airlines already treat pilots like shit and overwork the younger less experienced pilots that fly most of our regional smaller flights. Given their maintenance issues lately, how do you think this pans out? No way in hell am I going to let a machine have 100% control. It would never be able to handle the quick thinking, problem solving, and gut decisions that pilots leverage to bring things in safely when there are problems. Planes already are largely automated, but I'm not sure a regulatory agency would ever be comfortable removing pilots from the cockpit. The day they do is the end of my flying days.

When the service is mature enough to have decent stats on miles flown / crashes and that ratio is better than manned planes then sure, why not?

Remember, kids, aircraft are still the safest way to fly!

I'd definitely fly zero crew aside from the pilot, if it was cheaper.

Nope.

Not in the first few years of the tech, too risky for my taste.

no

• the quality of some planes are very sus, i.e., budget designs like those dreamliner/ max series, parts falling out either due to bad maint or they just built super cheapo

• freedom land has shown that liberating air traffic controllers from their jobs got so much air things bumping into each other. "like crewless, zero crew" would also mean zero land crew. i guess this also means tend to your own baggage

• there's those dramas where people get sick on board and someone asks if there's a doctor. now those dramas would just have a bunch of onlookers maybe posting on sns, praying, or just plain shouting for help. this scenario can be adjusted for the need of an air marshal as well

• i doubt all 300 people would orderly get the food they ordered and/or sit on the seat they were assigned. and/or not smoke. and/or not place their feet somewhere the body parts (maybe feet) shouldn't be on

• on the personal side, some ai voice telling me to calm down when the plane hits some turbulence feels like it won't work. for an extra free, you can choose your ai captain's voice! for more friendly lines, get the warm ai voice pack dlc

Why not? I hear dying in a plane crash is a fairly quick way to go.

In a perfect world where stuff never breaks?

Yep.

But we clearly don't live in that world, so no.

No, self driving will not be safe within my lifetime

No

This is going to be an unpopular take but as someone who went to school to fix jets and now deals with primarily UAV tech this is going to happen whether you like it or not. I'm not going to say it would be safer with our current tech but it is going to be safer. I totally understand why people are hesitant but we aren't as far away from this as most people think.

You can't get me in to a crewed plane right now. Ain't trusting no Tesla plane!

I've no fundamental objection to doing so. I don't think that existing aircraft are considered ready for that, though.

HELL NO

Yeah sure. Right after I take an ice pick to my nuts.

My hot take is that we get full automated commercial plane before single pilot.

Single pilot means that there is no way to avoid an air Berlin like mass murder (and being locked alone in a cockpit doesn't sounds great for mental health). No pilot means less risk to have such a scenario

Sure we need risk analysis (accident caused by humans versus humans preventing accident) and most likely newer ATC protocols, and some upgrade in equipments, but I doubt there it a major obstacle.