That would be the case with the Wheel Tug described here.

Dreaming? I am not dreaming... I have no vested interest in the company or the technology. Despite calling on you to just agree to disagree and having not put words in your mouth or act superior you still feel the need to be condescending... So this will be my final message to you, and no matter what your response is - I will not answer (so you can have the last word)

Moore's Law - I am sure you heard about it before and after a brief search on Google or Wikipedia it'll start to seem familiar to you. But hardware is not the only advancement, robotics and artificial intelligence is advancing at such a pace that it is absolutely impossible to accurately predict just how far and fast our lives will be impacted by changing technology. Would you really have believed 50 years ago that UAV's would not only be taking over so many recon. missions but would be trusted with live ordinance? No one thought that would be possible. Now google is working hard to get a completely autonomous passenger automobile to market. There are far more variables to deal with driving than flying. Car manufacturers already have autonomous features on existing cars that will apply the brakes for you if it deems necessary. I distinctly remember people though that consumers would NEVER want a computer overriding their decisions and yet those options are selling more than analysts predicted.

This conversation was NEVER about flying autonomously - it was about a tug that I predict will be autonomous down the line. Despite the extremely high price tag of aircraft, the top two costs of an airline are FUEL and WAGES. Now think about that... people may not want to fly in pilotless aircraft but do you think they care about a driverless tug? I'm willing to bet they wouldn't loose sleep over it at all. And the airlines would love the savings in both man hours and fuel. A single ground controller could monitor multiple vehicles especially with a visual based aid like a HUD. As long as the testing was done properly, and insurance underwriters sign off, the savings would be worth it for the airlines. ZERO runway incursions would be appealing to the FAA, Pilots may even learn to like a system like that that enables them time to do other tasks, a better pre-departure brief, and after all- they can override the autonomous system if they see a problem by just tapping the breaks or turning the tiller... the airport would have a more efficient flow of ground traffic taking all sorts of information into account... that in turn allows for more slots to be sold... it's a win win. It just has to be done right.

Us pilots have to be less apprehensive about talking about these things. Change is coming to EVERY facet of our lives including autonomous vehicles. If we decide to stick our heads in the ground like an ostrich and just repeat to ourselves what we want to hear we will be left out of the conversations all together in the same way the regional aircraft were ignored by the unions and as a result the regional airlines ripped into legacy carriers routes. If ALPA and the rest had treated RJ's properly and cared about the pilots getting paid so little they were on food stamps - we may have all benefited in many ways. If all we do is resist whats coming - we won't be at the table when decisions are made. Computers are still in their infancy really. It is completely possible that we will see autonomous aircraft flying passengers someday... maybe it's 50 years away, maybe 1000 years away, but at some point there could be a series of accidents and the people may demand the change. I hope that never happens, but it could.... God help us if the joke about each cockpit only having one pilot and one dog comes true. It's sad,

again - I have no vested interest in this - so it's not my dream at all. but feel free to send me 100 dollars when it happens LOL