Merlin CTO: autonomy can rebuild the foundation of aviation — and national security

I don’t understand all the fuss about autonomy. On the roads, autonomous vehicles have the potential to reduce the nearly 40,000 deaths caused annually by human error, yet deployments in cities like Washington and Boston continue to face delays driven by opposition from unions, local politicians, and now even Congress. In the air, the case for autonomy may be even stronger. Autonomous systems could take on some of the dullest, dirtiest, and most dangerous missions that pilots, including U.S. warfighters, face every day. Agricultural dusting, wildfire suppression, aerial refueling, combat search and rescue, and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) are just a few of the mission sets where autonomous systems could play a critical role. In many of these missions, autonomy isn’t about convenience. It’s about reducing risk, extending operational capability, and in some cases, saving lives. That’s why autonomy should not be viewed as a replacement for pilots, but as the next evolution of aviation itself. Aviation has always evolved alongside technology, from manual, analog flying to today’s highly connected and automated cockpit ecosystems. Modern aircraft already rely heavily on automation. On many commercial flights, pilots transition to sophisticated autopilot systems shortly after takeoff that manage much of the flight at cruising altitude. Yet despite the technology advancements we’ve seen to date, there still remains a significant opportunity to further improve the safety, efficiency, and scalability of flight operations. Introducing autonomy into the cockpit is exactly how we seize that opportunity, but autonomy is not limited to solely defense applications. I think everyone would agree that our national security represents the highest stake proving ground for these technologies, but these advanced systems can be scaled across all form factors in aviation, from small drones to civil aircraft to the world’s largest planes. The Autonomy Opportunity Tha