4 ms·

Automatic flight is much easier than autonomous driving. Not much to run into up there :).

afterburner 10y ago
Until everyone has a flying car?
wongarsu 10y ago
>Not much to run into up there :) So far. In a future where people commute in flying cars while delivery drones descend from some flying warehouse I'm not so sure this stays true. The saving grace is probably that up there we don't have to accommodate legacy vehicles. We can just force all airborne vehicles to talk to each other with some universal collision avoidance/traffic routing protocol.
- willglynn 10y ago
  > We can just force all airborne vehicles to talk to each other with some universal collision avoidance/traffic routing protocol. It's not exactly what you described, but in the US, the FAA already has a requirement for aircraft to broadcast their position and velocity in all but the least congested airspace by 2020 [1]. This has been in the works for over a decade [2], and among other things, the information provided by this system can be used to augment existing collision avoidance schemes [3]. [1] https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/programs/adsb/faq/#o2 https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/programs/adsb/faq/#o2 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance_–_broadcast#US_implementation_timetable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillan... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision_avoidance_system#Relationship_to_automatic_dependent_surveillance-broadcast_.28ADS-B.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision_avoidance_sy...
civilian 10y ago
Are you familiar with Smeed's Law? I think that it will also apply to flying cars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smeed's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smeed's_law
- nrjdhsbsid 10y ago
  I doubt it, there's just so much space up there. So first, no concept of lanes. Thinking in 2D space, everything becomes a road. Increase that another dimension, so now everything is a road and there's hundreds of levels of road. As long as the flight software keeps the cars/planes a decent distance from each other traffic will never be an issue when flying. A much bigger problem will be parking, since no traffic means everyone will fly everywhere all the time. Parking will be an extreme issue for city centers. The wait in traffic will probably turn into a wait to park
  - civilian 10y ago
    I suspect that, even in 3d space, there will be a concept of lanes. You still want volumes of space designated for one direction or another, at the very least to reduce the number of collision-calculations the guiding system has to make. Parking shouldn't be an issue? We'll have vertical parking structures that can be entered/exited on every level.
    - NickNameNick 10y ago
      I wouldn't want to fly any kind of helicopter or multicopter into a door in the side of a traditional multi story parking building. the sudden and asymmetric entrance into ground-effect will roll the aircraft, and I'm not sure what having a roof above your rotors would do - possible choke them of airflow and force them into high-speed-stall. airflow near walls is turbulent, and the funneling effect may suck the aircraft towards the wall. Solvable problems - you just have to build a landing pad away from the side of the building.
      - civilian 10y ago
        Totally true. I imagine you'd have to have some kind of checkerboard of landing pads. And, if our flying cars are helicopters or multicopters, we've got more problems, because we can't actually stack that many helicopters over eachother, due to the interference of their air columns. :-/
bootload 10y ago
"Not much to run into up there :)" Birds, hills, turbulence.
- azinman2 10y ago
  Ya. Having just taken a 6 personal commercial plane in stormy, windy weather I'm glad I had two professional pilots driving. It was absolutely terrifying, and I can't imagine your ordinary person feeling comfortable with it. I couldn't wait to get off the plane ASAP and thought we might crash on landing.
  - nrjdhsbsid 10y ago
    Honestly the plane was likely flying itself 90+% of the time. The computers are much better and giving a smooth ride in turbulance. For fun take a lot at the outer trim tabs when flying in rough skies. The computer adjusts them like 20 times a second to keep the wings stable, kinda cool to see
- lisper 10y ago
  Other flying cars.

Until everyone has a flying car?

>Not much to run into up there :) So far. In a future where people commute in flying cars while delivery drones descend from some flying warehouse I'm not so sure this stays true. The saving grace is probably that up there we don't have to accommodate legacy vehicles. We can just force all airborne vehicles to talk to each other with some universal collision avoidance/traffic routing protocol.

willglynn 10y ago
> We can just force all airborne vehicles to talk to each other with some universal collision avoidance/traffic routing protocol. It's not exactly what you described, but in the US, the FAA already has a requirement for aircraft to broadcast their position and velocity in all but the least congested airspace by 2020 [1]. This has been in the works for over a decade [2], and among other things, the information provided by this system can be used to augment existing collision avoidance schemes [3]. [1] https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/programs/adsb/faq/#o2 https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/programs/adsb/faq/#o2 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance_–_broadcast#US_implementation_timetable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillan... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision_avoidance_system#Relationship_to_automatic_dependent_surveillance-broadcast_.28ADS-B.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision_avoidance_sy...

civilian 10y ago

Are you familiar with Smeed's Law? I think that it will also apply to flying cars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smeed's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smeed's_law

nrjdhsbsid 10y ago
I doubt it, there's just so much space up there. So first, no concept of lanes. Thinking in 2D space, everything becomes a road. Increase that another dimension, so now everything is a road and there's hundreds of levels of road. As long as the flight software keeps the cars/planes a decent distance from each other traffic will never be an issue when flying. A much bigger problem will be parking, since no traffic means everyone will fly everywhere all the time. Parking will be an extreme issue for city centers. The wait in traffic will probably turn into a wait to park
- civilian 10y ago
  I suspect that, even in 3d space, there will be a concept of lanes. You still want volumes of space designated for one direction or another, at the very least to reduce the number of collision-calculations the guiding system has to make. Parking shouldn't be an issue? We'll have vertical parking structures that can be entered/exited on every level.
  - NickNameNick 10y ago
    I wouldn't want to fly any kind of helicopter or multicopter into a door in the side of a traditional multi story parking building. the sudden and asymmetric entrance into ground-effect will roll the aircraft, and I'm not sure what having a roof above your rotors would do - possible choke them of airflow and force them into high-speed-stall. airflow near walls is turbulent, and the funneling effect may suck the aircraft towards the wall. Solvable problems - you just have to build a landing pad away from the side of the building.
    - civilian 10y ago
      Totally true. I imagine you'd have to have some kind of checkerboard of landing pads. And, if our flying cars are helicopters or multicopters, we've got more problems, because we can't actually stack that many helicopters over eachother, due to the interference of their air columns. :-/

bootload 10y ago

"Not much to run into up there :)" Birds, hills, turbulence.

azinman2 10y ago
Ya. Having just taken a 6 personal commercial plane in stormy, windy weather I'm glad I had two professional pilots driving. It was absolutely terrifying, and I can't imagine your ordinary person feeling comfortable with it. I couldn't wait to get off the plane ASAP and thought we might crash on landing.
- nrjdhsbsid 10y ago
  Honestly the plane was likely flying itself 90+% of the time. The computers are much better and giving a smooth ride in turbulance. For fun take a lot at the outer trim tabs when flying in rough skies. The computer adjusts them like 20 times a second to keep the wings stable, kinda cool to see
lisper 10y ago
Other flying cars.