[dingaling]

> Most tech people know that airplane autopilots weren't end-to-end automated for the majority of their existence

The Lockheed TriStar flight-control system flew a fully-automated chocks-to-chocks take-off, flight and landing in ... 1973 I think?

Anyway the comparison with aircraft autopilots is confusing. The pilots will usually couple the autopilot soon after take-off and from then it follows the commands of the Flight Management System through which the pilots interact; new waypoints, level changes etc.

Several test schemes are investigating uploading routings directly from ATC via datalink, with the pilots just having to press a button to accept.

There is also a proposal to permit TCAS to command the autopilot to prevent collisions, instead of providing advisory notice to the pilots.