The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility.
Thing is, it’s been technically possible to automate 95% of the ATC job for decades now. Obviously, you want a human to step in for that last 5% when things get tough.
But that’s a problem all on its own. If the human steps in for that 5% of times when things get tough, they have to have the training to deal with a tough situation. They hone those skills through practice with the other 95% of the time. What you actually want is to have the human take over 25% of it, and cover a broad range of different situations in that 25%.
Choosing when to give over control some of the time is the hard part. Much harder than just waiting until it’s too complicated.
Thing is, it’s been technically possible to automate 95% of the ATC job for decades now. Obviously, you want a human to step in for that last 5% when things get tough.
But that’s a problem all on its own. If the human steps in for that 5% of times when things get tough, they have to have the training to deal with a tough situation. They hone those skills through practice with the other 95% of the time. What you actually want is to have the human take over 25% of it, and cover a broad range of different situations in that 25%.
Choosing when to give over control some of the time is the hard part. Much harder than just waiting until it’s too complicated.