You'd think there would be an exemption for ships without m-drives. :) A suicidal xboat pilot isn't much of a threat to anyone other than himself, and to anything other than a databank full of mail.

On Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 7:42 PM, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 10:26 PM, Craig Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
I don't think anything in canon attempts to explain why you need a sentient on board.


I always took it to be an implied effect of the Imperial aversion to automation in general and automated weapons in particular, perhaps as a codicil to the Shadusham (sp?) Accords. That is, since a ship makes a fairly effective kinetic WMD, so it should always have a [presumably non-suicidal] sentient pilot aboard. 

--
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)
"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester
"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.
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Craig Berry (http://google.com/+CraigBerry)
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time." - William Blake