I don't have my AoR book yet (and I never got the Beta version), but I do know that some specs are repeated from EoE. Namely... Pilot, Driver, Mechanic, and Slicer.

If someone really likes these trees, can they double up on them? Can a player have both the Smuggler: Pilot spec and the Ace: Pilot spec for instance? Obviously some of the Talents aren't ranked and there would be some thrown away XP getting around the trees to the ranked Talents, but is there a rule in AoR that says no to this idea?

Thanks!

No. It is not allowed.

Well, that answers that. Thanks!

Of course now that I say it, I can't find where I thought it was. Maybe it was a question asked and answered, maybe I am hallucinating, I will keep looking. Honestly though there are so many non ranked Talents in Pilot it would be kind of a waste of xp to buy the spec. If you already have purchased a Talent that isn't ranked you just automatically purchase it again for zero xp and bypass it in a tree that has it as well but you still have to spend the xp to get the tree.

Specs repeated in different careers are identical, and can only be taken once. So you can't take Pilot or Mechanic twice, for instance.

You can take similar ones though, such as Demolitionist and Saboteur.

Of course now that I say it, I can't find where I thought it was. Maybe it was a question asked and answered, maybe I am hallucinating, I will keep looking.

It is in the GM Chapter, in the Compatibility with Edge of the Empire section. That's the section that resolves most of the weirdness that can crop of when you mix AOR and EOE characters.