Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by skybrian 3560 days ago
As far as I know there isn't any autopilot that can fly a plane unattended unless you are flying on instruments. Collisions are avoided by relying on the air traffic control system knowing where all the planes are scheduled to be. (Plus plenty of backup warning systems.)

You can still use an autopilot when flying visually but then it's up to you to watch for traffic. This is using it like cruise control.

2 comments

> Collisions are avoided by relying on the air traffic control system knowing where all the planes are scheduled to be. (Plus plenty of backup warning systems.)

Yes, perfectly fine. If Teslas autopilot can rely on external traffic control to provide that information, call it autopilot. As long as it can't don't.

> As far as I know there isn't any autopilot that can fly a plane unattended

CMU is working on this (seriously).