[null and void]

You cannot program an Airbus to fly a descent profile and have the aircraft automatically initiate it. It always takes a pilot to execute a descent. Period.

Comforting if true.

I believe that you, as a highly skilled A320 pilot, firmly believe that.

I wonder if a highly skilled programer would always have the same belief.

[McGruff]

I wonder if a highly skilled programer would always have the same belief.

I was going to make a joke about the plane doing a Windows Update but decided not to, at least publicly.

In the interest of full disclosure, I are a somewhat skilled programer. This override check would be caught during certification testing. if not, someone's head would have rolled. Maybe I shouldn't use that phrase either.

[Tzfat]

As a matter of fact, I am a very experienced programmer too.

Consider that the A320 series has over 6,500 hulls flying. It may seem mysterious to many people how and why it does what it does, but tens of thousands of pilots know the A320 better than you know your car that you have driven for years.