Amazing. My view on this is that the combination of electrification and autonomous flight removes most of the cost advantage large airplanes have over small ones.
People seem to obsess over replacing large jets with large electrical planes but forget that the reason those exist at all is fuel economies that you simply don't have with electrical planes. A big jet has a better fuel economy than a small plane per kg of load. Bigger engines run more efficient. That's why private jets are so expensive to fly. A transatlantic flight burns quite a few tens of thousands of dollars worth of fuel. But it's not a problem because the plane is full of hundreds of people that each pay quite a bit of money for the privilege.
The same is not true for electric because the battery mass means large planes are pretty much impossible currently. Smaller planes on the other hand are feasible now and could get to interesting ranges pretty soon with even only modest improvements in technology. The low cost of electricity means that even if there was an advantage, it would matter a lot less. That makes the pilot the most important part of the cost of flying the plane from A to B (i.e. variable cost).
Many small electrical planes without a pilot would be able to transport people for vastly less than a single big jet (autonomous or not). Initially over small distances but with the help of better batteries or fuel cells, long haul flights should be doable as well eventually. The fuel/electricity cost for that would be a lot more modest than e.g. flying a 777 across the Atlantic. There is not much of a benefit over using a large airplane vs using many smaller ones. Even the cost of buying them could be better. E.g. the list price of the Eviation Alice would give you budget for about 30 of those for the price of a 777. That's an unreleased first generation electrical plane using pretty outdated tech (because certification takes that long).
So, I would say focus on small to medium sized planes and mass producing those because that is where the action is going to be short term. Think point to point connections of airports that you currently can't fly to because of noise restrictions. Anything under a 500 miles basically. That's a new market that is currently not economical with conventional planes because of noise and fuel cost.
People seem to obsess over replacing large jets with large electrical planes but forget that the reason those exist at all is fuel economies that you simply don't have with electrical planes. A big jet has a better fuel economy than a small plane per kg of load. Bigger engines run more efficient. That's why private jets are so expensive to fly. A transatlantic flight burns quite a few tens of thousands of dollars worth of fuel. But it's not a problem because the plane is full of hundreds of people that each pay quite a bit of money for the privilege.
The same is not true for electric because the battery mass means large planes are pretty much impossible currently. Smaller planes on the other hand are feasible now and could get to interesting ranges pretty soon with even only modest improvements in technology. The low cost of electricity means that even if there was an advantage, it would matter a lot less. That makes the pilot the most important part of the cost of flying the plane from A to B (i.e. variable cost).
Many small electrical planes without a pilot would be able to transport people for vastly less than a single big jet (autonomous or not). Initially over small distances but with the help of better batteries or fuel cells, long haul flights should be doable as well eventually. The fuel/electricity cost for that would be a lot more modest than e.g. flying a 777 across the Atlantic. There is not much of a benefit over using a large airplane vs using many smaller ones. Even the cost of buying them could be better. E.g. the list price of the Eviation Alice would give you budget for about 30 of those for the price of a 777. That's an unreleased first generation electrical plane using pretty outdated tech (because certification takes that long).
So, I would say focus on small to medium sized planes and mass producing those because that is where the action is going to be short term. Think point to point connections of airports that you currently can't fly to because of noise restrictions. Anything under a 500 miles basically. That's a new market that is currently not economical with conventional planes because of noise and fuel cost.