Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) is planning to start testing self-flying planes in the near future.

Boeing Co Vice President of Product Development Mike Sinnett revealed the news during an interview. He says that he will start testing the self-flying planes out via a simulator this year.

According to Sinnett, Boeing Co will likely be ready to test its self-flying planes in the real world sometime in 2018. He says that these planes will have artificial intelligence that can handle some decisions that are normally made by pilots.

The move toward self-flying planes may not be a large one to make. Modern planes are already capable of handling take off, landing and cruising through the air on their own. There are also already self-flying drones on the market.

While the jump to self-flying planes may not be a far one, Sinnett says that there are some major concerns. This includes making an artificial intelligence that can handle emergency situations. He specifically mentioned Captain Chesley Sullenberger making the safe landing on the Hudson and says that AI needs to be capable of that before it can be trusted to fly planes on its own, reports

CNBC.

“I would be perfectly happy if what came out of this whole study is that we need more pilots, and we’re going to commit to training and ensuring that we have the right levels of experience and competence,” Sinnett  told GeekWire. “This isn’t a quest to go take pilots out of the cockpit. This is a quest to ensure that the system maintains the same level of safety that we have today.”

BA stock was up 1% as of Thursday afternoon and is up 22% year-to-date.