Comment by dijit
3 years ago
I really see your point here; but I have to caution: Airplanes are "exactly as simple" as they need to be.
There is a lot that goes into their design to simplify things greatly; you're probably thinking of complicated computer systems that are used in planes.
But those computer systems are incredibly simple compared to what we use or build atop of: as simple as they have to be in order to be fully understood.
They're still far more complicated than a layman might guess after years of hearing that simple is always better.
I'm guessing things like fly by wire would be automatically assumed to be unsafe by a lot of people.
When cars get features that are anything like what goes into planes, people tend to get upset and say "I'm not an idiot, you should make cars expensive and complicated just because some drivers can't stop crashing without a computer".