Automation, yay or nay?
Take a look at the cockpit on the cover photo. You don’t see much here because everything is turned off, but when it is turned on, you have everything at a glance, right in front of your face. No guesswork on navigation - you have a magenta line to follow. No guesswork on flying the magenta line, the autopilot is pretty sophisticated and it will fly the course you program in to it. No visibility outside? No problem. You get a real time terrain and attitude display. And all kind of graphical flight data and engine parameters. And of course this is all really great. Until it isn’t. When the screens go dark, you need to use your backup steam gauges and compass to fly the plane. By hand, since you’ve probably lost your autopilot as you’ve lost your map and primary navigational electronics. But we train for this so it isn’t, or at least shouldn’t, be that big of a deal.
What about on your car? Your newer cars have a very fancy video display for navigation, controlling your AC and even tuning your radio. But you still drive it like a car. Unless it is a self-driving car, in which case, just like our airplane, it will accelerate, steer and brake itself. Well… until it doesn’t. Oh we train for….mmmm, not really. In your airplane, at ten thousand feet flying in a straight line, if your autopilot craps out, you normally have enough time to finish your Snickers bar and wipe the coffee off your shirt before you critically need to react to it. On the road, you’ve probably already killed someone (and possibly yourself) in the split second when the self-driving mode goes south.
There is a debate in the aviation industry. Should we have pilotless airplanes carrying passengers? We have the technology. And it’s even partially in use. Aside from military drones, some of the newer business class jets have autoland features that allow a non-pilot passenger to push a button, and the airplane will find and fly to the nearest airport on its own, make automated radio calls on the right frequencies, and land, in the case of an incapacitated pilot. But how much do you trust that? Do you trust that technology enough that you are willing to pull the pilot entirely out of the equation? Again, these systems work great - until they don’t.
And there is a similar debate in the automotive industry. Should we have driverless cars? If it’s something running on a rail, fine. I have no problem with that. But on the streets, where, if a sensor fails, I’m a dead pedestrian, cyclist or driver? It’s being done, and these things are happening. No I’m not on board, and for a lot of reasons.
Thoughts?
