Every day, Anicet Mbida makes us discover an innovation that could well change the way we consume.
This Wednesday, he is interested in the progress announced in the aviation sector.
Autonomous planes can now take off and land unmanned.
With today's innovation, we will really wonder if there is a pilot on the plane. We still don't have autonomous cars, but the first fully autonomous planes are already starting to fly.
It is ultimately not that surprising.
Because the approach is not at all the same.
Instead of building autonomous planes, we preferred to develop airline pilot robots.
They are installed at the controls of current machines.
They then connect to navigation systems and radars.
They even talk on the radio by text-to-speech.
Advantage: we no longer need to approve the device (it is a commercial aircraft).
You just have to approve the robot pilot.
What companies like XWing, Garmin or Dryne Technologies are now able to do.
Some systems are even capable of passing the pilot's license with flying colors.
That is exactly the same examination as humans, under the same conditions and with the same traps.
Thus, for the first time, a complete flight (door to door) has just been carried out in 100% autonomous mode on a commercial aircraft.
Does that mean that we could soon take the plane, and it's a robot that will be in control?
No.
But not for technical reasons.
For commercial reasons.
The companies are obviously interested.
But they did a poll.
And only 17% of travelers would be ready to board an unmanned plane.
People are scared.
This is why the technology will first be found on cargo planes for the transport of goods.
Note, however, that some private jets, such as the Cirrus G2, are starting to be equipped with an autonomous mode.
It comes in the form of an "emergency landing" button, which will take over and land the aircraft on its own, when the pilot feels unwell or has a heart attack.
After having technical safeguards, we now seek to anticipate human failures.