[thatsit]

> It is actually not like self driving at all. In the self driving case the nominal situation requires hard AI.

I agree with that. One could easily automate aviation like subways. However, you need to push the humans out, at least the controllers, possibly the pilots. This is far from doable and that’s why we end with the driving situation. In order to solve it, you need a lot of AI in order to deal with all the human-machine interactions.

First step in this would be to install a high-bandwidth digital comms between ground and planes. Currently they use analog AM, which is a century old! CPDLP is from the 80s, so much like SMS in phones. Nobody should even dare to market it as new.

Then again there simply isn’t anyone or any organization that is seriously pushing new technologies on planes and on the ground simultaneously. The plane-ATC interface has not gotten any update for decades and there is nobody aiming for redoing it. ATC and airlines, together with their respective manufacturers and suppliers are trapped inside their silos, unable to see trees from the forest.