We've been running major hydro power stations in Tas (elsewhere does it too) by remote control for decades. So we can and do start, run and stop major power stations with literally nobody there.
But once you put people on any sort of vehicle, well then things change and I agree that people like to know that there's a human there ready to take control even if they're not actually needed as such.
Some things are automated that many wouldn't realise. Many years ago techs at a radio station explained to me how they'd gone about automation. All the announcing was pre-recorded and it didn't take long to record the entire shift, the announcer just recorded one announcement after another without needing to wait for the music to play. That was all just files on a computer, as was the music (this was back in the days when the idea of playing music using a computer was still quite new) and same for the advertising. So it was all just a case of the computer playing the files one after another to do an overnight broadcast. The only technical complexity was the weather, but they had all possible temperature announcements pre-recorded and a simple thermometer linked into the system determined which one was played when weather updates were given, the announcing being such as to avoid mention of whether or not it was raining or windy and just give the temperature - that was deemed sufficient information to make the broadcast appear "live" for those listening and that was the intent.