Why should this be a US responsibility? Very little of our trade runs past Somalia and Yemen. The ship in this incident is Togolese and they're not even a treaty ally. Our previous attempt at intervention didn't work. Let someone else fix the problem.

It shouldn't be your responsibility, just like several dozens of other interventions shouldn't. Yet here we are. Also, why are you talking about this particular ship when I'm clearly talking about piracy at large in this region?

Ok so then we agree that it's not a US responsibility unless a US flagged ship is involved. Togo can fend for itself.

Mercedes-Benz accepts full liability when their Drive Pilot autonomous system is active.

https://www.mbusa.com/en/drive-pilot

I appreciate the link and information, but are you sure about that? I don't see or read anything about liability...

And footnote 2 on that page says:

2 DRIVE PILOT is an SAE Level 3 (conditional automated driving) system: the automated driving function takes over certain driving tasks. However, a fallback-ready user is still required. The fallback-ready user must be ready to take control of the vehicle at all times when prompted by the vehicle. Availability and use of DRIVE PILOT on freeways depends on options, compatible wireless networks, countries, states and relevant laws. Service subject to change at any time without notice. Mercedes me connect Terms of Use apply. Please refer to the Operator's Manual for additional instructions and limitations.

Those airplanes aren't going to be scrapped. Demand for flights hasn't reduced much. Other airlines will buy up the airplanes and put them back into service.

Spirit's business model was a threat to most airlines and had forced them to lower prices. This just takes away that pressure to lower their prices.

Really? Spirit had a very limited route network. And Delta and United have been successfully pursuing a market strategy based more on service quality than low prices. They account for the majority of profit in the whole industry.

Most flight attendants know very little about the actual flying part.

Which navies though? The reality is that very few countries still have the expeditionary navies capable of doing that. The US Navy (plus Coast Guard) can do it. A few others like China, Japan, India, and France can do it on a limited basis. The remaining countries can maybe send a token frigate on a temporary basis. That's about it. Even the UK, Russia, and Germany no longer have functioning expeditionary navies.

Who is "we" exactly? There's practically nothing that those of us in foreign countries can do to eliminate desperation in Yemen and Somalia. Previous attempts at interventions have probably made the problems there worse.

Outside of short coastal routes, the notion of autonomous merchant vessels is so silly. While there is maybe a little more opportunity to automate some watch standing duties, autonomous systems (including sensors) are not even remotely capable of safely navigating a ship in congested waters. You still need guys looking out the windows with binoculars and talking to other vessels on the radio.

Plus on a ship everything is constantly corroding and breaking. If nothing else you need trained crew on board to do preventive maintenance and repair. When a ship loses power in some remote area it's tough to bring in technicians before the ship ends up on the rocks.

Pretty soon the RPGs will be replaced by FPV drones. Put an explosive drone into the bridge of a merchant ship and it's going to be a mess. I predict that there will be a growing market for drone defenses on merchant ships such as radio jammers and nets over vital spaces.

Radio jammers only work until they figure out the fibre-controlled drones the Ukrainians and Russian's have been making.

Affordable drone defense is something of an unsolved problem right now.

Fiber optic guided drones don't work reliably at sea. The wires drag and break in the water.

Fire is always a risk, but crude oil is not "highly flammable". Some refined products and LNG are more problematic.

I predict that we'll see limited combat use of the latest Chinese bipedal robots within two years. They'll sell to both Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine already has UGVs and they're tracked or wheeled. I can't imagine bipedal robots being cost efficient for 99% of missions in the near future.

Right, the wheeled and tracked units are more cost efficient. But there are some mission sets and terrains for which bipedal robots will be more effective. Everything is going to get tested to see what works.