About whether using an LLM to fly a drone makes sense when autopilots exist.
Has this happened?
Yes 42 (39%)Not sure 37 (34%)No 30 (28%)
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?
About whether using an LLM to fly a drone makes sense when autopilots exist.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
"You don't need the "language model" part to run an autopilot, that's just silly."
I think most of us understood that reproducing what existing autopilot can do was not the goal. My inexpensive DJI quadcopter has an impressive abilities in this area as well. But, I cannot give it a mission in natural language and expect it to execute it. Not even close.