[alexpotato]

This is essentially what's happened with airliners.

Planes can land themselves with zero human intervention in all kinds of weather conditions and operating environments. In fact, there was a documentary where the plane landed so precisely that you could hear the tires hitting the center lane marker as it landed and then taxied.

Yet we STILL have pilots as a "last line of defense" in case something goes wrong.

[frenchman_in_ny]

No - planes cannot "land themselves with zero human intervention" (...). A CAT III autoland on commercial airliners requires a ton of manual setting of systems and certificated aircraft and runways in order to "land themselves" [0][1].

I'm not fully up to speed on the Autonomi / Garmin Autoland implementation found today on Cirrus and other aircraft -- but it's not for "everyday" use for landings.

[0] https://pilotinstitute.com/can-an-airplane-land-itself/

[1] https://askthepilot.com/questionanswers/automation-myths/

[rkomorn]

Not only that but they are even less capable of taking off on their own (see the work done by Airbus' ATTOL project [0] on what some of the more recent successes are).

So I'm not sure what "planes can land on their own" gets us anyway even if autopilot on modern airliners can do an awful lot on their own (including following flight plans in ways that are more advanced than before).

The Garmin Autoland basically announces "my pilot is incapacitated and the plane is going to land itself at <insert a nearby runway>" without asking for landing clearance (which is very cool in and of itself but nowhere near what anyone would consider autonomous).

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TIBeso4abU (among other things, but this video is arguably the most fun one)

Edit: and yes maybe the "pilots are basically superfluous now" misconception is a pet peeve for me (and I'm guessing parent as well)

[psunavy03]

Taking off on their own is one thing. Being able to properly handle a high-speed abort is another, given that is one of the most dangerous emergency procedures in aviation.

[rkomorn]

Agreed. I had to actually reject a takeoff in a C172 on a somewhat short runway and that was already enough stress.

[psunavy03]

Having flown military jets . . . I'm thankful I only ever had to high-speed abort in the simulator. It's sporty, even with a tailhook and long-field arresting gear. The nightmare scenario was a dual high-speed abort during a formation takeoff. First one to the arresting gear loses, and has to pass it up for the one behind.

There's no other regime of flight where you're asking the aircraft to go from "I want to do this" to "I want to do the exact opposite of that" in a matter of seconds, and the physics is not in your favor.

[namibj]

How's that not autonomous? The landing is fully automated. The clearance/talking isn't, but we know that's about the easiest part to automate it's just that the incentives aren't quite there.

[rkomorn]

It's not autonomous because it is rote automation.

It does not have logic to deal with unforeseen situations (with some exceptions of handling collision avoidance advisories). Automating ATC, clearance, etc, is also not currently realistic (let alone "the easiest part") because ATC doesn't know what an airliner's constraints may be in terms of fuel capacity, company procedures for the aircraft, etc, so it can't just remotely instruct it to say "fly this route / hold for this long / etc".

Heck, even the current autolands need the pilot to control the aircraft when the speed drops low enough that the rudder is no longer effective because the nose gear is usually not autopilot-controllable (which is a TIL for me). So that means the aircraft can't vacate the runway, let alone taxi to the gate.

I think airliners and modern autopilot and flight computers are amazing systems but they are just not "autonomous" by any stretch.

Edit: oh, sorry, maybe you were only asking about the Garmin Autoland not being autonomous, not airliner autoland. Most of this still applies, though.

[frenchman_in_ny]

There's still a human in the loop with Garmin Autoland -- someone has to press the button. If you're flying solo and become incapacitated, the plane isn't going to land itself.

[rkomorn]

Right. None of this works without humans. :)

[victorbjorklund]

One difference there would be that the cost of the pilots is tiny vs the rest that goes into a flight. But I would bet that the cost of the doctor is a bigger % of the process of getting an x-ray.