From what I understand, autopilot in planes is legit. The pilots are only there to monitor and, actually more likely, take over if there is a problem.
I think the majority of most flights are done on autopilot. Of course, very little to hit in the air and the GPS can just track everything.
A different world when trying to land something.
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Yea, that's pretty much it. I'm not an expert in aviation but I have a few friends in the industry.
Autopilot is a thing indeed and the pilots are there to monitor and make sure nothing goes out of plan. If that's the case, then they take over.
You are also right about landing... that can be tough and (at least to my knowledge) no autopilot can do that yet.
I read about some landing assisting devices that are quite clever but they don't aim to replace the pilot, it's just for situations when you have a lot of fog, clouds and stuff like that. Usually, they just cancel or redirect flights under those circumstances, but those systems could help the pilot to safely land a plane even if they don't have 100% clear vision of the landing strip.
I'm not sure what's the status on that though.
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I think it more likely the aircraft controllers get replaced before the pilots. They do nothing but look at computer monitors anyway.
A computer can do most of what they do.
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