Toyota Research Institute head says full autonomous driving is “not even close”

Re:Toyota Research Institute head says full autonomous drivi... by sannee on Monday August 28, 2017 @11:12AM (#15117035)

The price of a plane/train is astronomical compared to what you have to pay for a pilot. I mean, you could literally buy a pilot for a millenia for the price of a jetliner (100M$ for jetliner / 100k$/year for pilot). There just isn't a very large economical incentive to automate that job out.

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Re:Toyota Research Institute head says full autonomous drivi... by ceejayoz on Monday August 28, 2017 @12:11PM (#15117606)

It's not one pilot, though. It's two pilots, times two shifts a day, plus some extras to cover vacation, sickness, etc.

There was enough pressure to engineer away flight engineers, navigators, and radio operators in cockpits. I wouldn't expect them to pass on potential savings in the low-margin world of airlines.

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Re:Toyota Research Institute head says full autonomous drivi... by throwawayjava on Monday August 28, 2017 @12:14PM (#15117630)

And still, the pilot portion of the cost of operation for planes is in the single digits. You barely scrape into the double digits (maybe 20% MAX, closer to 10 I think) if you count all labor.

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Re:Toyota Research Institute head says full autonomous drivi... by ceejayoz on Monday August 28, 2017 @12:31PM (#15117838)

http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/how-airlines-make-less-tha...

> "With a net profit margin of just 2.4%, airlines only retain $5.42 per passenger carried," said Tony Tyler CEO of International Air Transport Association (IATA) at the group's 70th AGM in Doha, Qatar.

I suspect they're interested in single-digit cost reductions.

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Re:Toyota Research Institute head says full autonomous drivi... by btian on Monday August 28, 2017 @01:13PM (#15118244)

Airlines will kill to get another 10% in margin.

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Re:Toyota Research Institute head says full autonomous drivi... by throwawayjava on Monday August 28, 2017 @01:43PM (#15118522)

So are flight attendants impossible to automate/do without? Or are there perhaps other forces -- beyond technical ones -- keeping humans in the plane?

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Re:Toyota Research Institute head says full autonomous drivi... by ghaff on Monday August 28, 2017 @02:27PM (#15118892)

AFAIK, the FAA requires a certain number of flight attendants for safety reasons.

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Re:Toyota Research Institute head says full autonomous drivi... by throwawayjava on Monday August 28, 2017 @02:57PM (#15119103)

Right, that's my point.

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