KingsGambit said:
I didn't even know they were working on such a thing. This is fascinating, cutting edge stuff. I'll be sure to look for more info once time allows, very interested to learn about further developments.
Her's an interesting talking point however, that was posed by Jeremy Clarkson in an episode of Top Gear, when talking about the subject of cars that drive themselves. Not word for word.
It is statistically proven that the greatest cause of the majority (ie. greater than half) of aeroplane accidents is due to pilot error.
It's also (and has been for some time) well known that it is technologically possible for a plane to take off, fly and land itself perfectly without any human intervention.
Therefore we know for fact that a plane which flew itself would be safer than a plane with a human pilot.
But knowing this, who would be willing to fly on a plane without a human pilot?
Yes, but isn't it reasonable to assume that this is caused in part by the complacency of pilots who have been trained to pretty much just trust their instruments? and who have the expectation that the plane can do most things by itself?
This seems to me like a terrible thing, it's just going to remove another aspect of living, and further reduce the need for human interaction. It is also just another thing we are apparently trying to delegate to machines. For what reason I can't imagine. People don't take pride in their own damn accomplishments anymore, there's seems to be a growing malaise of apathy about simply living.
Seriously, I know makes me sound like a grumpy old man, or some doomsday whack job, but there is a point to be made there. For most people it seems like the more machines we create to do stuff for us the less reason we have to live. It's as if we are willfully making ourselves obsolete. And that's just a stupid idea.
And if this sort of thing catches on and something ever does go wrong then your average driver won't even have a fucking clue what to do about it. After all, most of the skill of driving comes from the automatic reactions built up by experience.
I, for one would, rather die due to pilot error than a malfunctioning robotic vehicle (although obviously I'd rather not die at all).
