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The FAA’s Hiring Scandal

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739 points firebaze | 2 comments | 05 Feb 25 05:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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iamleppert ◴[05 Feb 25 15:29 UTC] No.42949865[source]▶
Instead of bickering over who gets a job that fundamentally should be automated by now, they should focus on developing technology that doesn't rely on people. Or at least uses automation for 95% of the job and delegates to a person only when rare exceptions arise. ATC is ripe for disruption from AI, and now that we have LLMs and speech models on par with human ability, its a short walk in the park to imagine a fully automated ATC model.
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sandworm101 ◴[05 Feb 25 15:32 UTC] No.42949912[source]▶
Sit in a tower for a day before talking about automation. Remember ten years ago when people said human-driven cars would soon be illegal? The number of fact-specific edge cases that happen every shift mean ATC is far far from automation.
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1. baby_souffle ◴[05 Feb 25 15:50 UTC] No.42950229[source]▶
> Remember ten years ago when people said human-driven cars would soon be illegal? The number of fact-specific edge cases that happen every shift mean ATC is far far from automation.

This. Commercial jets have had full auto taxi, take off, fly, land capability for a long time at supported airports. A human is still in the loop for parts of it due to the potential for something to deviate from nominal in a novel way at almost any time.

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2. sandworm101 ◴[05 Feb 25 18:14 UTC] No.42952747[source]▶
A human is in the loop for all parts. Every essential step is done by humans (flap/gear control, throttle up for takeoff). The airplane doesn't make decisions, rather it does what the humans tell it to. Autopilot is not automation.