It seems like an area where automated systems should be really good. We already have automated systems that an land planes without human intervention and that's a far more difficult problem.
And yet we don't because humans are immeasurably better at dealing with edge cases than any automated system. That being said, I do expect those systems developed by SpaceX to be automated. But I'd hesitate to call it "an area where automated systems should be really good."
ISS hookups are still done by hand? Otherwise there aren't a lot of opportunities currently to do in-space docking. The lack of a solution could just be due to a lack of demand currently.
Absolutely. Which is why I'd never trust my car to drive itself -- not for years anyway. Most testing and training I've seen from companies has been done in ideal conditions with "non-ideal" conditions being considered some sort of edge case? Maybe it's because all the self driving startups are operating in sunny California. What a nightmare a self driving car would be on uneven, icy, dark roads. I'm certain it would turn itself off and ask a human to drive then. And that'll be the case for a while. Or in cities in asia where rules of the road are more like suggestions, and driving is completely reactionary.
No, driverless cars today aren't ready for reality.
I think it will be a gradual change, both to gradually improve the technology and to get users used to it.
I drove the new Volvo V90 for a couple of weeks a while ago and it of course have the adaptive cruise control and those things you are used to these days but it also can drive itself similar to a Tesla autopilot.
At first it was a pretty weird feeling that the car controlled the steering wheel (you still need to hold it otherwise it will beep at you) but gradually I got used to it and started to trust it more and more. At least when driving on the highway and after a while it became a really nice feature to have.
Truly autonomous cars are of course far away and the problems with snow storms etc. also needs to be solved but I do think more and more car manufacturers will keep adding one feature after another until we suddenly are there. And at that point it won't be that big of a leap for us mentally.
