Crash: how computers are setting us up for disaster | Tim Harford

We increasingly let computers fly planes and carry out security checks. Driverless cars are next. But is our reliance on automation setting us up for disaster?

When a sleepy Marc Dubois walked into the cockpit of his own aeroplane, he was confronted with a scene of confusion. The plane was shaking so violently that it was hard to read the instruments. An alarm was alternating between a chirruping trill and an automated voice: "STALL STALL STALL." His junior co-pilots were at the controls. In a calm tone, Captain Dubois asked: "What's happening?"

Co-pilot David Robert's answer was less calm. "We completely lost control of the aeroplane, and we don't understand anything! We tried everything!"

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