Football commentator John Madden is afraid of flying and has a custom bus that he rides to all the games he covers, and I guess everywhere else he goes.  I’ve always thought that, while it might suck to have a phobia of anything, having a customized bus with a driver to get around in is about as close to traveling nirvanah I’d ever be able to find.

Well, after reading this Freakonomics post titled "Would You Fly on an Airplane with No Pilot" I can tell you that if we ever get to the point where planes are routinely flown by remote control with no pilot in the cockpit then I’m going to become a great customer for Amtrak, Trailways and all the cruise lines.  I know that auto pilot already does a lot of the flying, but at least there’s someone there keeping an eye on things.  On top of that the person keeping an eye on things has as much interest as I do in making sure the plane gets where it’s going without crashing.  Some guy working a joystick in Des Moines just doesn’t have the chips in the game, if you know what I mean.  What’s stopping him from having a couple of beers at lunch and then coming back to play "let’s land the 737 in half the distance it normally takes" just for giggles? And what about communications breakdowns? If you’ve ever watched satellite TV in the middle of a thunderstorm you know what I’m talking about.

Let’s put it this way: have you ever been to a hobby store to see who’s buying all those RC planes?  That’s probably the pool of applicants for this job and you’re going to tell me you’ll trust them with your life? 

Trailways it is.