> Here's just one big hairy example: to fly manned missions, starship either needs to be redesigned to accommodate an escape system, or it needs to show a level of reliability and safety never previously achieved by a rocket.
I bet there are lots of people willing to fly on Starship even if it had Falcon 9’s level of reliability even without an escape system.
I bet hundreds of people would volunteer. Look at the number of fatalities and non-fatal crashes involving FSD attention detection defeat devices. Brave test pilots every one of them.
F9’s escape system has never been needed thus far. It’s possible it’s a lot more reliable than we know.
Current (2026-11) FSD in “sloth” mode requires less attention (in software), and, having used it a fair bit myself, I would probably ride in it unsupervised. The Cybercab customers do.
I bet there are lots of people willing to fly on Starship even if it had Falcon 9’s level of reliability even without an escape system.
Current (2026-11) FSD in “sloth” mode requires less attention (in software), and, having used it a fair bit myself, I would probably ride in it unsupervised. The Cybercab customers do.