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from the extraordinary-hacker-opportunity-here dept.
John Markoff writes in the NYT that in the aftermath of the co-pilot crashing a Germanwings plane into a mountain, aviation experts are beginning to wonder if human pilots are really necessary aboard commercial planes. Advances in sensor technology, computing and artificial intelligence are making human pilots less necessary than ever in the cockpit and government agencies are already experimenting with replacing the co-pilot, perhaps even both pilots on cargo planes, with robots or remote operators. What the Germanwings crash “has done has elevated the question of should there or not be ways to externally control commercial aircraft,” says Mary Cummings. NASA is exploring a related possibility: moving the co-pilot out of the cockpit on commercial flights, and instead using a single remote operator to serve as co-pilot for multiple aircraft. In this scenario, a ground controller might operate as a dispatcher managing a dozen or more flights simultaneously. It would be possible for the ground controller to “beam” into individual planes when needed and to land a plane remotely in the event that the pilot became incapacitated — or worse. “Could we have a single-pilot aircraft with the ability to remotely control the aircraft from the ground that is safer than today’s systems?" asks Cummings. "The answer is yes.”
Automating that job may save money. But will passengers ever set foot on plane piloted by robots, or humans thousands of miles from the cockpit? In written testimony submitted to the Senate last month, the Air Line Pilots Association warned, “It is vitally important that the pressure to capitalize on the technology not lead to an incomplete safety analysis of the aircraft and operations.” The association defended the unique skills of a human pilot: “A pilot on board an aircraft can see, feel, smell or hear many indications of an impending problem (PDF) and begin to formulate a course of action before even sophisticated sensors and indicators provide positive indications of trouble.” Not all of the scientists and engineers believe that increasingly sophisticated planes will always be safer planes. "Technology can have costs of its own,” says Amy Pritchett. “If you put more technology in the cockpit, you have more technology that can fail.”
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday April 07 2015, @09:53PM
“Could we have a single-pilot aircraft with the ability to remotely control the aircraft from the ground that is safer than today’s systems?" asks Cummings. "The answer is yes.”
If she's the one I'm thinking of, she's a philosophy and UI and systems analyst type person, which is valuable in a general sense, and she's very smart, etc, etc, but when you're talking about a security related issue you'd think the journalist would ask a security researcher unless the answer and quotes he was provided with from anyone knowing anything about security matched his preselected corporate message so poorly that he had to go way off the reservation and talk to a philosophy / UI / systems analyst person in order to find someone who doesn't instantly freak out about the obvious security holes.
It would only be a matter of months, maybe years at most, before turning all jetliners into internet controlled outsourced RC planes results in something like a remotely controlled 9/11 involving every single plane simultaneously in the air some morning. I suppose 9/11 was highly profitable to the right people, so its inevitable things will be arranged such that this will happen to us to make them even more money in the following crackdown.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2015, @10:47PM
According to the article in the NYT, Mary Cummings is the director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University and a former Navy F-18 pilot, who is a researcher on the Darpa project.
(Score: 1) by SubiculumHammer on Tuesday April 07 2015, @10:53PM
Agree. Rando internet people have even argued that the missing Malaysian flight from last year was the result of hacking.
http://beforeitsnews.com/events/2014/03/spies-on-missing-malaysia-airline-plane-5-major-defense-contractor-companies-26-intel-passengers-2432766.html [beforeitsnews.com]
Is it true. Who knows.
(Score: 1) by SubiculumHammer on Tuesday April 07 2015, @10:55PM
wait nevermind. That website is crazy. Still. Cyber attack is not beyond the realm of believability, especially if pilots become remote AI.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 08 2015, @12:58AM
It would only be a matter of months, maybe years at most, before turning all jetliners into internet controlled outsourced RC planes results in something like a remotely controlled 9/11 involving every single plane simultaneously in the air some morning.
And then we'll have the same aviation experts wondering if full automation is really necessary on a passenger plane.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday April 08 2015, @08:47AM
She forgot to specify, "Safer for the pilots."