@obeq It really isnt, you can position sensor arrays inside the cockpit to increase redundancy and run a de-icer to a LiPo & a moisture sensor. We've had great luck with this approach even In storm tests. There Is a ton of hardware on modern planes In desperate need of an update.

I won't delve Into the specifics behind our ideas for automating nearly 2/3rds of ATC (could write pages on It) but they've proven more fruitful than we first anticipated. Totally automation Is likely a decade or two off though In that regard.

What convinced me he was an idiot or just awful at his job Is that the Blackbox revealed he was aware of the stall and still ascended. It says so right In the logs In that popular mechanics article.

Flock of Seagulls caught me by surprise, I went to maneuver around them and put myself In a stall. Ended up crashing Into the edge of a small pond and skidding off into a wooded overgrown area. Left me with sinuses packed full of leaves and dust, not a fun experience.

@swantzter This question has an easy answer. Do you want consumers to buy your product? If you do, the drivers life comes first In nearly all situations.

@obeq Planes should NEVER crash due to pilot incompetence. I'm sure you'd feel differently If your mother or child sat on that plane hurtling toward the ground, every bit aware of their impending death. All because one pilot was taking a nap and the other made an idiot mistake, he had been explicitly directed not to ascend to reverse the stall but he continued to do so as a blaring stall alarm sounded.

Read this popular mechanics article, it's pretty evident that he idiocy led to the deaths of over 200 people.

http://popularmechanics.com/flight/...

@obeq You're still comparing a plane with hardware built before 1992 to the amount of computing power available today. Thats not an apt comparison, especially with the rapid & recent proliferation of GPGPU.

There's a multitude of problems to be solved but that doesn't mean they can't be. Sensors being obscured by weather Is pretty much a non-problem, the main glaring issue Is ATC and ground to flight communications.

I've spent thousands of hours In the air, do you have your pilots license? I'd say I could pretty accurately say how I'd respond In an emergency considering I've been forced to land In a small pond, damaging my plane In the process. This happened because I began to stall, just like AF 447. Big difference between a Cesna 172 and and a huge Airbus but he still made a rookie mistake. That man conducted himself like an idiot after his partner napped through the whole flight. Maybe he wasn't an idiot overall, but what he did was certainly idiotic and It cost hundreds of lives

@obeq

They were literally sleeping, and could have probably saved the plane If Bonin wasn't such an idiot.

http://dailymail.co.uk/news/...

@obeq Theres tons of automation built into the big Boeing/Airbus planes. My son flies an Airbus 330 and would attest to just that, I also have my pilots license and a Cesna 172 that I love to fly over the Bay. This Is definitely a problem that can be solved, It might require more infrastructure but it's quite possible. Also the AF 447 flight crashed due to pilot error, one of the pilots raised the nose when he was instructed to lower It via the automate stall protocol. I think comparing computers on modern planes to a massive cluster Is very disengenous.

Object avoidance Is still rather poor, which Is very important for things like search and rescue, navigating through tight spaces, etc. Adam Bry & Skydio are doing some incredible stuff In that regard though along with GRASP Labs at UPenn. I'm guessing they'll be consumer ready In a year or so, maybe less.

LIDAR has seen some major improvements too. Cheaper cameras/sensors and embedded computing systems like Nvidias TX1 are propelling drones towards conplete autonomous flight incredibly fast. I wouldn't be surprised If they hit the market before autonomous cars, simply due to the extensive regulation motor vehicle tech entails.

@Xevion Basically, take off & landing will be automated soon though. It prevents hijackings & things like the GermanWings incident. Usually emergencies are handled by a flight engineer, I would guess that would still be the case. I have seen such rapid progress with embedded computing & depth sensing cameras In the past few years, this Is all but inevitable.

Thats pretty funny, I think they've hit some other drivers too though. Self driving cars are 10 years out at most, planes & construction equipment will soon follow.