Alaska Jet Vs. Black Bear - AVweb

I stopped flying commercially after 911. It was already tedious and frustrating, with boorish and inconsiderate passengers too lazy to deal with bag check, resulting in inordinate time spent blocking aisles while they tried to stuff all their worldly belongings in the overhead, and reversing that after landing. Airplanes were being packed to the gills with airlines trying to maximize revenues, and courteous stewardesses who used to serve full meals and drinks in real glasses were replaced by surly “flight attendants”, male AND female, who served only nuts and crackers, and drinks in paper cups. Those “flight attendants” didn’t give a rip about customer satisfaction - they were there for the paycheck.

Then 911 ushered in TSA with all the interminable lines, requirements to partially undress, and the coveted and much sought-after groping we all grew to expect and hate. Commercial flying, anyone? Not for this guy. Buh-bye, airlines. If I can’t drive myself there, I don’t go.

That’s a false question. It is based on a specific situation. What matters in aviation is overall safety. Can AI pilots always save the day in some specific unusual situation? No (and neither can humans in every case) but that’s irrelevant in any case. If an AI equipped commercial air transport system has fewer crashes overall than a natural intelligence equipped transportation system, then AI wins.

AI doesn’t have strokes (the likely cause of the recent santee crash), it doesn’t get tired , it doesn’t get offended by ATC, it doesn’t have “getthereitis”, it doesn’t confuse one instrument reading for another, it doesn’t accidentally swap to numbers when programming the navigation system, it doesn’t get disoriented in IMC… I could go on an on. Humans suck at being pilots.