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Keep Your Hands On The Wheel For Now, At Least
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It might seem counterintuitive, but experts like Capt. "Sully" Sullenberger say that the newer planes with advanced auto-pilot capabilities need more, not less, training for pilots, because, as in the case of crashes in recent years, the autonomous systems fail in disastrous ways that can be prevented if the pilots know what they're doing and can override the system. Example: The recent Lion Air crash in Indonesia was caused by a faulty sensor, and if the pilots had been properly trained, they'd have known to flip a switch that would have saved the flight. Instead, they crashed into the sea. This has implications for autonomous cars, too; no matter what you hear from pundits who saw self-driving cars in the parking lot at CES, they are not ready to go it alone, especially for things like driving in snow or dealing with other cars and pedestrians who don't react the way the computer expects. And drivers have to be more alert than they're likely to be. (Los Angeles Times)
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