Replacing pilots with computers?

One of the notions that has been tossed around for a long time now is the idea of replacing pilots all together with computers. I know the airlines would LOVE this since computers don't need rest, paychecks, retirement, or health insurance. Ahem... Skywest... Sure, you have to buy it and maintain it, but I'm sure they can find someone to build the computers for less than they pay flight crews.

The primary reason talked about with this idea is safety. Now, I'm all for safety and it is generally believed that half of all airplane crashes are due to pilot error. OK, fair point. So, the idea is that if you replace the pilots, you will then reduce the number of aircraft accidents by half. Sounds great! After all, even a single aircraft crash is too many. I think we'd all love to find a way to halve the number of airplane crashes.

However, replacing the pilots will NOT halve the number of crashes. You might be indeed removing pilot error, however, there's something HUGE that is being ignored with this idea. Everyday, countless auto-pilot errors are caught and handled by real live pilots who fly airplanes for a living. I couldn't tell you how many times when everything is going along fine, then the computer decides to do something retarded. It's the pilot's job to catch that error and fix it, or even take over and manually fly the aircraft should there be a threat to safety. This happens a lot more than you might expect.

Is it scary? No, not really. That is our job. We see these computers day in and day out. It's our job to take over from the auto pilot when it doesn't do what we are wanting it to do. I would imagine that most pilots reading this who fly "glass" cockpit aircraft are saying, "Yeah, I can never turn my back on that damn thing!"

For the record, "Automation" is a word that is very much misunderstood in a flightdeck sense. I'm currently working on a post called "What is an auto-pilot, anyways?" The short of it is, the computer doesn't just take over and do everything while the pilots work on their laptops. Auto-pilots do serve as a great work reduction tool, but they are not what most people think they are. Think about it this way: Cruise control is a nice feature in your car, right? However, when you turn on, do you just hop in the back seat and take a nap while the car drives itself to your destination?

The day I will support a fully autonomous airliner carrying passengers is when the inaugural flight is filled exclusively with airline CEOs, Vice Presidents, and Chief Pilots. That's what I call a win win. If the technology is truly up for the job, they should have no problem getting on the plane themselves to demonstrate their trust in it. And, if it's not up the job, well, the industry will be better off.