Comment Re:Sensors wrong (Score 5, Insightful) 460
To add to this, people seem to forget everything that happened more than a month ago or so. I'd like to see the computer that would have ditched US flight Airways 1549 perfectly into the Hudson River just minutes after the start.
A point very important you make. Automation is great for instances where sensor data is accurate and a proscribed course of action can be safely followed. More automation can be useful in such cases. However, it's the edge cases where the pilot's judgement is needed to safely operate an aircraft. The USAir 1549 is an excellent example, as is United Flight 232. Could a remote pilot glide a 767 to a safe landing, and avoid cars on the abandoned runway that the copilot happened to know existed, as happened with Gimli Glider? As with many highly complicated devices, automation is a great tool to help the operator in routine, and some casualty, operations; however when things go not as planned and a new twist is added to the scenario you need judgement, not rote rules, and judgement is sorely lacking in automation and difficult to do if you are thousand of miles away and only know what the sensor data feed tells you.