No one thinks the pilot has to be ready to take over at a moment's notice and be constantly paying careful attention to what is happening in front of the plane though.
Except for maybe pilots, anybody who has trained to be a pilot, or family or friends of pilots?
The nicer thing in the air is that, if autopilot fails, you're typically thousands of feet up.
Nobody's mentioning that autopilot in airplanes does nothing for collision avoidance. GCAS is collision avoidance and had its issues, but is considered well past autopilot.
>> The nicer thing in the air is that, if autopilot fails, you're typically thousands of feet up.
I'm not sure "nicer" is really the right word, here. I get what you're saying- there's time to react. But, that is time to react before you hit the ground. Not quite "nice".
Everyone who knows anything about aviation thinks the pilot has to be ready to take over at a moment's notice and be constantly paying careful attention to what is happening in front of the plane. Autopilots merely lower the pilot workload. Even with the autopilot engaged, the pilot is still actively flying the aircraft.
