Steve Jurvetson likes big ideas. The venture capital investor placed early, bold bets on electric cars (Tesla Motors) and space exploration (SpaceX). He speaks publicly every chance he gets on how the world will be transformed sooner than we think by advances like robotics and driverless vehicles.

Commercial air travel has been on his mind lately, and Jurvetson, a partner at Menlo Park, Calif.-based Draper Fisher Jurvetson, has an idea that may seem even more shocking than self-driving cars--he thinks pilots should be taken...