FAA expands AI advice to manage air traffic congestion across entire US airspace
Airlines praised the AI tool, but the air traffic controllers’ union wasn’t involved.
The US government has recently expanded the use of an AI tool designed to assist air traffic controllers in managing congestion across the entire national airspace system, according to a report from November 10. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) claims that the SMART system, which stands for Smart, Automated Decision Systems, has already shown promising results since its implementation in September 2022 in the airspace over Washington, DC.
Since its initial rollout, the FAA reports that the AI-driven system has successfully rerouted 180 flights, saving an average of 10 minutes per flight and almost 80 gallons of fuel per flight. The agency aims to replicate these impressive results nationwide as it deploys the SMART system in the airspace of all 22 centers across the country.
While airline executives have voiced their support for the rollout, the US labor union representing air traffic controllers has stated that they were not involved in designing or testing the AI-driven system.
Written by urgent.news from Ars Technica's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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