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Then again, is a system that works 99.5% of the time and delegates stuff to humans 0.5% of the time more or less reliable than a system that relies 100% on humans, with their microsleeps, inattention, mistakes etc.? Has air travel, e.g., become mostly less or mostly more reliable by means of automation?

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Hmm -- the question shouldn't be 100% human vs 0.5% human, the question is 0.5% human vs 0% human. Can somebody helicopter into a new situation and make a decision quickly about what to do.

Flight may be a bad example because the time constraints are so short. Changing the scenario to an automated fedex truck lost on a rural road, the truck can pull over and wait a few minutes for help. In this case the solution probably isn't to tag in an expert but rather to call the delivery recipient for directions (same as a human driver would do).

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