> That if the sub were to be equipped with smarter and smarter autopilot software, the humans operators would eventually forget how to pilot the sub themselves the way that commercial airline pilots keep forgetting how to fly.
Well the lack of situational awareness with EFIS (glass cockpit) systems is a known issue. Pilots tend to 'switch off' because of the low workload and then when something goes wrong they're not aware of the situation because they haven't been following along.
This has contributed so some incidents such as the AF 447 crash where the pilots were basically unaware of the actual situation of the plane and flew it straight into the ground (well, sea).
I can understand the Navy wants its crews to be more involved for that reason (and perhaps also because the enemy might deliberately instill confusion by messing with navaids etc), but I think there should be at least a warning if you try to do something that's known to be stupid.
Well the lack of situational awareness with EFIS (glass cockpit) systems is a known issue. Pilots tend to 'switch off' because of the low workload and then when something goes wrong they're not aware of the situation because they haven't been following along.
This has contributed so some incidents such as the AF 447 crash where the pilots were basically unaware of the actual situation of the plane and flew it straight into the ground (well, sea).
I can understand the Navy wants its crews to be more involved for that reason (and perhaps also because the enemy might deliberately instill confusion by messing with navaids etc), but I think there should be at least a warning if you try to do something that's known to be stupid.