Ah yes! Get to 10x cost improvement by eliminating the pilot. Perfect.
This is called putting the bell on the cat. Or Belling the cat.
This is called putting the bell on the cat. Or Belling the cat.
An electric aircraft can have multiple engines (to wit: an octocopter) rather than just one a turbine that is a both high tolerance technological marvel and high maintenance. They don't need to long high speed blades whirring above to achieve VTOL, they can have small propellers in cowling's. They don't have to carry lots of highly flammable fuel that is highly likely to start a fire in suburbia ifthey become ubiquitous. With luck they will have solid state batteries. They don't need spinning wings under high stress, they can have passive wings that glide naturally. They don't need a big heavy engine to generate the power needed for takeoff, as powerful electric engines are powerful yet small, light and easily redirected without a gear train.
A lot of things change. Admittedly some are way worse for electric, like flight endurance - and so it's no coincidence we are talking about taxi's here, not long haul fights. But when it comes to taxi's most things are improvements over ICE engines we have now. Thinking it is just about the presence or absence of a pilot is simplifying things way too much.
The sky is mostly empty space and landing zones are clearly marked and purpose built. You don't have to worry about any pedestrians or unpredictable drivers or roads.
Actually you do. Most airspace is uncontrolled, where the collision avoidance algorithm is "see and avoid". There are plenty of airspace users who do not broadcast any kind of beacon apart from being visible to other pilots.
You could demand that they all wear electronic beacons. Such technologies do exist. However they aren't currently predicted to work well enough in the expected congestion created by large numbers of autonomous aircraft in the future. And it faces most of the same practical challenges as putting beacons on pedestrians and all other road users.