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Originally Posted by QuasiMondo
To me, this is about as scary as relying on the auto-pilot to take-off and land a commercial airliner.
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Ah, so you're ready to accept it as a safe and normal part of every day (for some) 21st century life? Glad to hear it!
If you've ever landed during low visibility conditions on a major airline, chances are good that the pilot was just watching the instruments, and didn't turn the autopilot off until he was on the runway. For some airlines, there is actually a minimum number of hands off (or 'coupled'...that is, computer coupled to the controls) landings required per year to stay up to date on them.
On take off, the autopilot usually isn't engaged until at least 5 or 10 seconds after the wheels leave the ground. Not because it couldn't do the whole thing easily (see: numorous unmanned vehicles capable of autonomous flight), but only because regulations on how long is too long to switch back to manual control in an emergency haven't caught up with technology.
Also, there's no real reason for takeoffs to be autopilot, it's not like it's technically difficult to take off...landing is at least two orders of magnitude more difficult a challenge from a computation perspective.