Automation Promises and Concerns for Three Levels of Automation: A Survey of Pilots of Advanced Automation Commercial Aircraft

It is generally accepted that advanced automation has made commercial flight safer and more economical. Yet concern continues to be voiced about the pitfalls of advanced automation, with pilot issues such as the loss of situation awareness, complacency and workload extremes. It has been argued that as the complexity and amount of automation increase, and the levels of automation control and authority increase, it becomes more difficult for the flight crew to maintain awareness of what the automation is doing and will do. There is a greater requirement for coordination and management of goals, tasks, information and intentions between flight crew and automated systems. This paper describes part of a survey that was aimed at gathering pilot opinions about automation promises and concerns for different levels of automation. It was administered to 132 pilots of advanced automation commercial jet aircraft.