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I'm saying it now. Flying cars for the general population is just not going to happen until the repulsor lift is invented, and ubiquitous with all aircraft. Man
by overcast 10y ago
I'm saying it now. Flying cars for the general population is just not going to happen until the repulsor lift is invented, and ubiquitous with all aircraft. Many, many years into the future. Long after those of us on HN are gone.
There is just zero need for this right now, and is just silly nonsense. Work on making our ground systems 100% safe, efficient, and reliable first.
- Spooky23 10y agoWhy not? With self driving, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than autonomous cars. Any point in a 30 mile typical travel radius is a <15 minute flight.
- loeg 10y agoCost and safety.
- dforrestwilson1 10y ago^ This. Think about the capacity constraints during your typical commute. All those times you have ever been held up in traffic could be massively diminished thanks to increase short-hop flight commutes.
- dispose13432 10y agoWhy do you think the airspace won't have traffic? You want to end traffic with modern accessible tech? Build ten layer freeways.
- Spooky23 10y agoAs New York City first discovered when the Triborough Bridge was built, more highway capacity generates more traffic. Today only the Uber-rich can afford short haul flying. With a airtaxi/flying car scenario, just about anyone could fly across their metro area for some special occasion.
- wongarsu 10y agoIn theory, we might develop a vertical-liftoff flying fully-autonomous car, that starts anywhere and brings you to the free parking spot closest to the target. We would have to overcome some safety challenges, and convince society that it's safe (to even enable the needed reforms in airspace regulations). Now even if we did all that, with current technology flight is both incredibly noisy and less fuel efficient than driving (commercial airliners are primarily efficient because hundreds of people travel in one vehicle). It's not really a physical limitation, after all maglev trains gain fuel efficiency and noise reduction by floating. But our existing technologies for free flight just aren't good fits for cars.
- overcast 10y agoBecause we need to think realistically, and economically. Improving, and incrementing familiar technology now. Not introducing another mess in the air. We haven't even got self-driving land vehicles, and we're just going to make the jump to aircraft that NO ONE is familiar with? We still rely on primitive controlled explosions to get off our planet. Sure it's a neat idea, but this isn't the Fifth Element world yet. Update ground infrastructure, improve public transportation, make renewable energy a priority, get our cars driving themselves.
- ohyoutravel 10y agoThis is probably the argument horse carriage operators made when mass produced cars were just coming into being.
- Spooky23 10y agoIt's also the argument used by naysayers of corporate jet cards.
- Spooky23 10y agoSelf flying aircraft are much easier than cars. Fewer variables and years of experience in military contexts. My parents live in a rural area 16 mikes from our city center. Due to terrain and roads, it's a 30 mile/60 minute trip. With a flying car/shuttle, its no more than 20 minutes.
- overcast 10y agoI'm going to infer you're talking about drones. There is a quantum leap difference between self flying military robots, and ones that carry humans around safely during rush hour crowds.
- Spooky23 10y agoWhat would someone say in 1996 about a form of cruise control that functions like an airplane shipping today in a Tesla? What would the average person say about a self-driving cab that is currently being piloted by Uber at that time? I'm honestly surprised about the downvoting and snark here. There are Air Force officers sitting in trailers in Nevada right now controlling swarms of semi-autonomous drones, performance surveillance and blowing stuff up. Why is a simple air taxi beyond the imagination?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- lisivka 10y ago+1. Fliers can solve commute hell. Every building has roof, which can be used as a pad for fliers, which will solve problem with parking. Nuclear batteries can provide enough electricity for flier for years. We just need to develop safer nuclear batteries (LENR type?), which, in turn, requires better understanding of nuclear physics, which, in turn, requires to shoot some «shut-up and calculate» guys.