Arketip wrote:
Andrew Sarangan wrote:

The human analog of your question is a pilot becoming unconsicous
during flight. Yes, we have a backup pilot, but there is no reason why
we can't put MANY backup computers and backup power sources.

Computers will never be fool proof, but they can be more reliable than
humans, especially in repetitive tasks. Like it or not, flying is a
repetitive task.

Have you ever flown one of the new state of the art aircraft?

7 times out of 10 when you start up the aircraft you get some kind of
nuisance message or glitch, and like any computer you just go with the
old Control Alt Delete routine.
There are still too many computer glitches to even think to have
aircrafts without pilots.

The 70% failure rate is quite alarming. Have you discussed this with
the designers? What do they have to say about it?

In any case, I am sure a similar discussion once took place about
navigators in the cockpit. Present day computer technology is quite
capable of coming up with a pilotless aircraft. The technology is
here; it is a matter of correctly implementing it. However, to allay
fears, the first step will be a single-pilot aircraft, which I believe
is not too far in the future.