← Back to context

Comment by pj_mukh

7 months ago

I mean maybe instead of patholigizing to that level we maybe need to accept that there is a temporal normal distribution to human attention spans and design our systems around it.

It feels like semi-autonomous ATC and flight controls were possible as of 5 years ago. Has FAA even started writing initial reports on this?

> semi-autonomous ATC

Yeah, that one has been around as long as there have been computers. It's sort of like the flying car of the ATC world - it's always 5 years away.

> temporal normal distribution to human attention spans

Tn this case we had both the ATC and the instructor tell the pilot to do something different and they didn't listen. Not sure if that's an attention span issue, it may be, but it's not clear it's definitely what it is.

  • AFAICT the technologies been around for a while (esp assistance). It's the regulation and the minefield of a roll-out plan that the FAA would rather not take on. Nobody gets fired for doing nothing and continuing to play whack-a-mole with human frailties.

    • > AFAICT the technologies been around for a while (esp assistance)

      Yeah, agree. There is even mention of a collision alarm at the tower going off

      > Nobody gets fired for doing nothing and continuing to play whack-a-mole with human frailties.

      That seems like it. It kind of feels something should have been worked out by now, but nobody wants to put a system in place, that would could due to a glitch direct a bunch of flight to crash into a mountain or into each other.