Would you get on a commercial airplane knowing that the flight would have no pilot? If you’re like the vast majority of people, you probably just gave this question a resounding “no”. Yet, despite overwhelming public resistance, the travel industry is bracing for the arrival of fully automated flights.

Many passengers aren’t aware that the autopilot is already engaged for approximately 90% of most commercial flights.
Take-offs and landings usually require the pilot to manually control the aircraft, but the autopilot takes over for most other phases of the journey and is only disengaged shortly before landing. Given this fact, it’s really just a short step to removing the pilot altogether.

News from the travel industry is suggesting that pilotless flights may begin as soon as seven or eight years from now.
The technology certainly exists, and the savings to be gained by removing the crew from the flight deck are conservatively estimated to be between $35 and $40 billion dollars a year.
This includes not only the cost of salaries, but the steep expenses incurred when flights need to be cancelled or delayed because the pilot couldn’t make it to the gate on time.

The public is being lured to accept the concept of fully automated flights by the promise of cheaper travel. Prices in Europe would be expected to drop by about 5%, and probably by twice as much in the United States.
This doesn’t seem to be doing the trick, however, as most passengers are still vehement that they wouldn’t get on a plane without a pilot no matter what the ticket cost.

There is simply something reassuring about knowing there’s someone in charge “up there”.
Even though security measures ensure that passengers rarely see their pilot anymore, his or her soothing voice announcing the progress of the flight is a familiar and welcome part of air travel.
Even if we don’t know exactly what the pilot is doing in the cockpit, we all like to assume it’s something important.

Just as human scepticism is the chief impediment to driverless cars, passenger concerns may prove this news from the travel industry to be just a little premature. It could take several more years of gentle persuasion to convince most travellers to sit back, relax, and enjoy the pilotless flight.

In 2013, Enterprise Holdings conducted a survey to get a better understanding of the relationship between renting a car and vehicle ownership. They did it again in 2015, and most recently in 2017, with all results confirming that customers in every age group rent cars as a means of testing those they are considering for purchase.

Rental Cars The Ultimate Test-Drive

Millennials in particular (those now aged between 25-40) believe that car ownership is essential to daily life. They would apparently rather be deprived of social media, lose sleep or skip meals than have to go through life without a vehicle.

Almost 30% of new cars are purchased by this generation of consumers, far more than their Gen X predecessors.
Almost 54% of millennials purchased a car in the United States in the last two years – and 68% of them were influenced by their experience with a rental vehicle.

The younger the purchaser, the more likely they are to be swayed by a feature or experience they had with a rental vehicle, but almost 70% of customers in all age groups suggested that their rental experience had a bearing on their future choice of vehicle.

Through the car hire market, many customers are introduced to makes and models they may not have considered before, and almost half experience some type of new feature or technology when they rent a car.

The Enterprise surveys include customers of National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car, and the results can be applied with some measure of confidence to the entire car rental industry. The bottom line is that the Baby Boomer love affair with the car might have skipped a generation, but has been reignited with a passion by a group of Millennials who can’t imagaine getting to work or going on vacation without one.

The car rental industry has traditionally focused on meeting the needs of business and holiday travellers. The Enterprise surveys, however, reveal that a significant share of the market is to be found among those who are looking for an extended test drive.

This will undoubtedly influence the selection of vehicles available for hire in the future, with car rental companies continuing to diversify their fleets to provide clients with increasingly interesting, and innovative, options.