The first unmanned airliner will have to be flown thousands of hours carrying cargo to prove to humanity it is safe to carry passengers.

Most modern airliners can already cruise and land on their own, provided the airport has necessary infrastructure (google ILS, instrument landing systems). Taking off is the only thing now fully automated yet, and it’s easy enough in general.

Plus I highly doubt that we’ll get rid of pilots in any foreseeable future, since there will always be some staff on board anyway (like flight attendants to feed the hungry plane crowd), and you definitely need someone to be able react in case of emergencies.