Methods and systems for remote operation of vehicles using hands-free functionality

A method of autonomously enabling remote control of an aircraft, the method comprising:

• autonomously detecting an event with respect to manual operation of the aircraft based at least in part on output from a component onboard the aircraft;
• determining an onboard system to be activated based on a characteristic of the event;
• autonomously initiating activation of a hands-free functionality of the onboard system;
• and
• generating an audio representation of a command for an automated action received from an external system via a communications system onboard the aircraft, wherein the onboard system thereafter receives, via the hands-free functionality, the audio representation of the command and automatically performs the automated action in accordance with the command in response to receiving the audio representation of the command via the hands-free functionality.

An aircraft system comprising:

• an avionics system onboard an aircraft;
• a second system onboard the aircraft to provide output data indicative of an event;
• a communications system to receive a command for operating the aircraft from an external system;
• and
• a processing system coupled to the avionics system, the second system and the communications system to autonomously detect the event based at least in part on the output from the second system and autonomously initiate activation of a hands-free functionality of the avionics system in response to detecting the event, wherein:
• the avionics system receives the command via the hands-free functionality;
• and
• the processing system is coupled to the communications system to provide notification of the event to the external system prior to receipt of the command.