Summary
- Compare systems and people by task, conditions and failure mode rather than one average error rate.
- Handover, degraded sensors, cyber isolation and accountable command must be tested as one flight system.
Asking whether robots are better pilots compresses many roles into a contest. Automation may excel at stable control and detection while humans integrate novel context, but either can be undermined by poor interfaces and training. The next useful evidence is an independent scenario matrix covering rare combinations, false alerts and recovery after authority changes hands. A safe autonomous aircraft is not one that never needs people; it is one whose boundaries, fallback and responsibility remain clear under pressure.
