Can AI Fly a Commercial Plane?

AI autopilots in commercial airlines is a surprisingly early use of AI technology that dates as far back as 1914, depending on how loosely you define autopilot. The New York Times reports that the average flight of a Boeing plane involves only seven minutes of human-steered flight, which is typically reserved only for takeoff and landing.

Glimpse into the future

In the future, AI will shorten your commute even further via self-driving cars that result in up to 90% fewer accidents, more efficient ride sharing to reduce the number of cars on the road by up to 75%, and smart traffic lights that reduce wait times by 40% and overall travel time by 26% in a pilot study.

The timeline for some of these changes is unclear, as predictions vary about when self-driving cars will become a reality: BI Intelligence predicts fully-autonomous vehicles will debut in 2019; Uber CEO Travis Kalanick says the timeline for self-driving cars is “a years thing, not a decades thing”; Andrew Ng, Chief Scientist at Baidu and Stanford faculty member, predicted in early 2016 that self-driving cars will be mass produced by 2021. On the other hand, The Wall Street Journal interviewed several experts who say fully autonomous vehicles are decades away. TechEmergence also discussed the timeline for a self-driving car with Eran Shir, CEO of AI-powered dashcam app Nexar, who believes virtual chauffeurs are closer than we think.

It is safe to say that the human race is slowly and steadily going into the hands of AI. What’s amusing that humans are themselves the creator of the technology.