5 ms·

So fast forward 10+ years, what does this look like? Can I get a drone Uber to pick me up? Where exactly? Are there helipads everywhere there use to be a bus s

So fast forward 10+ years, what does this look like? Can I get a drone Uber to pick me up? Where exactly? Are there helipads everywhere there use to be a bus stop? For private owners, do they build a landing area in their backyard or rooftop? Or do you drive out to the airport? Does the paramedic-flying-themselves-to-the-accident know where to land the drone with 18 chopping blades (for stability and redundancy)?

avn2109 10y ago
>> "...chopping blades..." Presumably the drones' propulsion systems will have to be ducted fans for just this reason.
- FabHK 10y ago
  The Volocopter has no ducts - same sophisticated tech as a helicopter: props are rotating a bit higher than your average human.
coldcode 10y ago
Flying cars can generate flying car crashes which seem inherently dangerous. A drone is nothing more than a flying car without a driver. If it breaks down and kills the passenger (and anyone unlucky beneath) who is responsible?
- ourmandave 10y ago
  That's all I can think about when I watch SF movies with flying cars (e.g. Fifth Element, Star Wars, Natl Lampoon's Vacation). Where do you park? What happens if the battery dies? Why is there so much cartoon physics?
  - nine_k 10y ago
    1) You park in a garage or a parking lot, as you would a normal car of comparable size. 2) There's no "the battery", there are several cells, each capable of giving you enough juice for a landing if all others die. OTOH catastrophic failures are of course possible, as with cars. A parachute pushed out by a small charge can help if the altitude allows. 3) Because cartoon physics look good (and funny) on screen. I suppose the rest of Fifth Element does not look boringly realistic to you either.
    - ourmandave 10y ago
      The Fifth Elements dudes in the rubber masks was not a high point. But I was thinking more about Jedi jumping out of cars and not going splat on someone's windshield.
- the8472 10y ago
  Car traffic has to flow through a 1D cross-section (N lanes) one after another. Air traffic can flow through a 2D cross-section. Which also means that vehicles don't have don't to line up like a pearl necklace. That should reduce collision probabilities if vehicles talk to each other and are able to reserve sufficiently large safety buffers around each other.
FabHK 10y ago
NASA had a workshop on that topic in 2015, the "TRANSFORMATIVE VERTICAL FLIGHT WORKSHOP" [1]. They were specifically asking: "Why is the Silicon Valley a great Early Adopter Market for civil VTOL?" [2] (Spoiler alert: getting from A to B on the road takes too long due to traffic...) And yes, that study imagines 200 helipads scattered throughout the Bay Area. [1] http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/tvf http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/tvf [2] http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/Antcliff-SV-TVFW-Aug15.pdf http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/Ant...
- iofj 10y ago
  Why bother with helipads ? Silicon valley has plenty of parkings and it is actually perfectly legal to land on them (assuming of course your plane is capable of that, which most aren't). This is assuming you have permission from the owner, of course, but that seems likely not to be a problem.

avn2109 10y ago

>> "...chopping blades..." Presumably the drones' propulsion systems will have to be ducted fans for just this reason.

FabHK 10y ago
The Volocopter has no ducts - same sophisticated tech as a helicopter: props are rotating a bit higher than your average human.

coldcode 10y ago

Flying cars can generate flying car crashes which seem inherently dangerous. A drone is nothing more than a flying car without a driver. If it breaks down and kills the passenger (and anyone unlucky beneath) who is responsible?

ourmandave 10y ago
That's all I can think about when I watch SF movies with flying cars (e.g. Fifth Element, Star Wars, Natl Lampoon's Vacation). Where do you park? What happens if the battery dies? Why is there so much cartoon physics?
- nine_k 10y ago
  1) You park in a garage or a parking lot, as you would a normal car of comparable size. 2) There's no "the battery", there are several cells, each capable of giving you enough juice for a landing if all others die. OTOH catastrophic failures are of course possible, as with cars. A parachute pushed out by a small charge can help if the altitude allows. 3) Because cartoon physics look good (and funny) on screen. I suppose the rest of Fifth Element does not look boringly realistic to you either.
  - ourmandave 10y ago
    The Fifth Elements dudes in the rubber masks was not a high point. But I was thinking more about Jedi jumping out of cars and not going splat on someone's windshield.
the8472 10y ago
Car traffic has to flow through a 1D cross-section (N lanes) one after another. Air traffic can flow through a 2D cross-section. Which also means that vehicles don't have don't to line up like a pearl necklace. That should reduce collision probabilities if vehicles talk to each other and are able to reserve sufficiently large safety buffers around each other.

FabHK 10y ago

NASA had a workshop on that topic in 2015, the "TRANSFORMATIVE VERTICAL FLIGHT WORKSHOP" [1]. They were specifically asking: "Why is the Silicon Valley a great Early Adopter Market for civil VTOL?" [2] (Spoiler alert: getting from A to B on the road takes too long due to traffic...) And yes, that study imagines 200 helipads scattered throughout the Bay Area. [1] http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/tvf http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/tvf [2] http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/Antcliff-SV-TVFW-Aug15.pdf http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/Ant...

iofj 10y ago
Why bother with helipads ? Silicon valley has plenty of parkings and it is actually perfectly legal to land on them (assuming of course your plane is capable of that, which most aren't). This is assuming you have permission from the owner, of course, but that seems likely not to be a problem.