[rcxdude]

As a counterpoint, aircraft designers have learnt through bitter experience that interface design is extremely important, as in stressful situations, or even due to a momentary lapse in attention, even a very highly trained, careful individual can make a fatal mistake. Quite frankly the only reason tractors don't get the same treatment is that generally the operator only kills themselves, not a few hundred other people.

(This isn't to say that training is useless, just that more training isn't the best and only solution to all problems, nor will a lack of careful interface design magically create more capable operators)

[itsanaccount]

I think that's a great counterpoint, but it is leading to the same issue. Its allowing a class of pilots to fly who know less and less, and are more reliant on the automation. With deadly results.

Separately the only reason tractors don't get the same treatment is because society doesn't care about rural men in the same way they don't care about soldiers. In comparison cars have been largely regulated for safety, because the people who die in car crashes come from a wider swath of society.

[rcxdude]

> Its allowing a class of pilots to fly who know less and less, and are more reliant on the automation. With deadly results.

This is a plausible hypothesis, but it is reflected in the data? Flying has gotten safer and safer over the years, but of course that's got a multitude of effects contributing to it, not just the skill of the pilots. Reliance on automation is effectively a requirement for modern aircraft given the number of control systems which are critical to the pilot having any control of the aircraft. I've seen Boeing criticized for their approach here: while Airbus's interface is more or less "you are directing a series of control systems, not flying the plane directly", Boeing has essentially tried to concoct an elaborate illusion that a gigantic airliner is a Cessna, which a leaky abstraction even if it makes the pilot feel like they are "closer to the metal". (I could draw a comparison to C programmers who feel the same thing despite the great honking illusion of an optimizing compiler in between).