| ▲ | amelius 3 days ago |
| "Autopilot" already exists when it comes to flying. |
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| ▲ | bdcravens 3 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| Sure but it's not autonomous in the sense of Waymo (ie, driverless) |
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| ▲ | ckastner 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Landing can be: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoland In fact, it's pretty routine. Don't have the source at hand, but somewhere around 1% of all landings (at airports with ILS) are autolands. I think it was Boeing that even requires at least 1 autoland per plane every 30 days or so. You can find videos of this on YouTube. Completely hands-off. | | |
| ▲ | themafia 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Most carriers have a rule that on clear days you always hand fly the landing. This is a competence you do not want to lose. It's also the case that you can have a whole approach setup in your flight computer and at the last minute the controller gives you a runway change. You could drop your head down and start typing a bunch info the FMC but you're generally better off just disabling auto pilot and manually making the adjustment. | |
| ▲ | amelius 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | I'm curious, what is harder to implement: autoland for airplanes, or autoland for rockets (spaceX)? | | |
| ▲ | ckastner 3 days ago | parent [-] | | I don't know if these are comparable. But two interesting data points from the Wikipedia article I linked are that the first aircraft certification for ILS Cat III was in 1968, and Cat IIIB in 1975. And IIRC by the 1980s, autoland was already a pretty common feature. |
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| ▲ | danielvaughn 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yes but it should have been obvious that in the context of Waymo + SFO, the implication was autonomous flying of commercial airlines. |
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| ▲ | seanmcdirmid 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Yes, but autopilot usually just keeps the plane flying in a straight line at some specified altitude, which have been around since 1912. It isn't full self-flying (although we definitely have drones that can fly themselves already, so that tech already exists). |
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| ▲ | dawnerd 3 days ago | parent [-] | | That's an oversimplification of autopilot systems. They can follow flight routes, avoid traffic (TCAS), even auto land to name a few. | | |
| ▲ | seanmcdirmid 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Auto-landers are not simply classified with autopilots. An autoland system is an advanced function that is part of a modern aircraft's overall autopilot capabilities. A basic autopilot can control an aircraft's attitude and heading, but an autoland system can automatically execute the full landing procedure. |
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