你愿意坐无人驾驶的飞机吗？

　　The tragic Germanwings crash in the Alps this week -- which allegedly was caused deliberately by the copilot -- raises the question: Would it make sense to fly planes without pilots?

　　本周德国之翼航空公司的飞机在阿尔卑斯山失事，据称，此次事故是副机长有意为之。一时间，飞机可以实现无人驾驶吗？这个问题便引起热议。

　　Some experts say the answer is yes。

　　一些专家表示，这完全可能。

　　"Planes can already fly themselves," said Mary Cummings, a former Air Force pilot, an engineering professor at Duke University。

　　前美国空军飞行员，杜克大学机械工程教授玛丽·卡明斯说，“现在飞机已经可以自动驾驶了。”

　　"Pilots only spend 3 minutes per flight flying a plane anyway, and they don’t really need to do that," she said. About 80% of plane crashes are caused by human error, she adds。

　　“其实一趟航程中飞行员开飞机的时间只有3分钟，他们也不必那么做，”她说到。并表示大约有80%的飞机坠毁事故是由人为失误造成的。

　　The U.S. military already flies Global Hawk drones, which are nearly the size of a the widely-used Boeing 737 passenger jets. And military data shows that drone flights crash less often than piloted flights, Cummings said。

　　美军的全球鹰无人机就正在服役，和常见的波音737客机几乎一样大。卡明斯表示，军事数据表明无人机的坠毁率比有人驾驶的飞机的坠毁率低得多。

　　But so far businesses working on drones are looking only at non-passenger uses, like making deliveries or taking aerial pictures. Fliers aren’t ready for pilotless flights either, according to Cummings。

　　但是目前商用无人机主要应用于无乘客领域，比如运输或航拍。卡明斯同时说道，乘客现在也不能接受无人驾驶的飞机。

　　Pilotless passenger planes are therefore probably decades away, said John Hansman, an aeronautics and astronautics professor at MIT。

　　麻省理工大学的航空航天教授约翰·韩斯曼表示，无人驾驶的客机或许要到多年以后才能实现。

　　"It’s not a technical issue, it’s an issue of societal trust," he said。

　　“这不是技术问题，而是社会是否对此信赖的问题。”他说道。

　　The potential cost savings means the idea won’t go away, though. Airlines could save trillions of dollars over the life of their aircraft just by switching from a two-person flight crew to a single pilot, Cummings said。

　　卡明斯则表示，这个想法变为现实应该并不会太久，因为这可以大大降低成本。航空公司可以把原来的两个飞行员减为一个，这样算下来就可以省下数万亿美元。

　　Once there’s only a single pilot aboard an aircraft, she said the planes will have to be able to operate without a pilot in case the pilot is incapacitated。

　　而一旦这个想法实现，飞机就必须保证在机长出现情况不能驾驶飞机时可以自动操作。

　　A pilotless plane is at risk of getting hacked. But experts say that hacking risk can be kept very small and will be worth the risk。

　　无人驾驶的飞机有被劫机的风险。但是专家表示遭受劫机的风险很低，并且这也值得冒险。

　　"Can it be hack proof. No never. Strongly hack resistant? Yes." said Todd Humphreys, a University of Texas professor of aerospace engineering. He says hacking poses less of a risk to fliers than a hijacker or rogue pilot。

　　“它可以完全防劫机吗？永远不可能。可以有效防止劫机吗？可以！”德克萨斯州一所大学的航天机械教授托德·汉弗莱斯这样说道。他表示和劫机相较，黑客和不靠谱的飞行员对飞机的威胁更大。

　　"If people feel like it’s a substantial savings, they’re more willing to do it," she said. Airlines will probably be able to convince passengers to board pilotless planes with lower fares, according to Cummings, who’s conducted surveys about the issue。

　　“如果人们觉得能省下不少钱，或许会更愿意尝试。”卡明斯一直在调查此类问题，她表示如果航空公司以低价吸引顾客，有些乘客可能会愿意登机。

　　And as people start getting comfortable with self-driving cars in the coming years, she expects attitudes towards pilotless planes to change also. "People are getting more and more used to automation," Cummings said。

　　既然人们已经开始接受自动驾驶汽车，她认为人们对自动驾驶的飞机的观点应该也会改变。并说道，“人们已慢慢习惯自动化的东西。”