It seems on every flight to the ISS for either people or just cargo, there is [always a big deal over manual docking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_and_berthing_of_spacecraft), lots of back and forth over comms, pinpointing the right spot, slowing down in a long procedure, all controlled by hand.

But I keep hearing about *automated* docking. What are the technologies used for such a thing currently? What are technologies that could be used soon or down the road? Is there some reason automated docking is not used more often?

I've seen info on [Kurs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurs_(docking_navigation_system)), what was used on Mir, but it seems it is not used anymore.

And further but not necessary, are there any proposed machine learning methods proposed working on visual or other electromagnetic-based sensors?