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Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire
- sigi45 8y agoIn Munich politicians asked to plan in airtaxi spots to be build/considered for the rebuild of our main train station, while I have to throw away liquids above 100ml in the airport!
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Fifer82 8y agoIs a Flying Car just essentially a big drone with more noise? Do we need the Car part? Also why are we building big drones, can't we just have mini electric helicopters?
- jlebrech 8y agothe "car part" is the human error part. also less accountability for the manufacturer.
- mtgx 8y agoHopefully his flying cars are not like all the other Google hardware products (released in "beta" for hundreds of dollars with a ton of issues).
- jpm_sd 8y agoAll of these concepts have the same problems: * loud * short range * no auto-rotation * no passive stability * almost no unpowered glide Accidents waiting to happen. Never something that you will want to have zipping around your residential neighborhood.
- erikb 8y agoWhat is the point of this post? This is all well known and that is what development projects are for. If you would at least argue that this will always be the same then there would be a discussion to have. But right now this post is just saying the obvious while ignoring that everybody is exactly working on resolving these problems.
- jpm_sd 8y agoThe point is, Larry Page is fighting physics, and therefore wasting his money.
- snarf21 8y agoWhat do you think about single person gyrocopters?
- nradov 8y agoThose already exist and are available in kit form. You can buy one if you want it, but they aren't very popular because they're expensive, slow, noisy, and relatively dangerous.
- at-fates-hands 8y agoThis doesn't even touch the idea of training people to fly. I've been studying for my Remote Pilot license just to use my drone professionally and the amount of information you need to know is at times overwhelming. I seriously can't imagine how you would administer a test like that to license people to fly their cars.
- kickling 8y agoWell, we already have licenses for flying planes, which seems to work quite well.
- molteanu 8y agoThat doesn't seem to be an issue: You have got enough happening in your life without having to learn how to fly. But what if flying across town was as easy as hopping in a rideshare? What if Cora could fly for you? Cora will combine self-flying software with expert human supervision, so you can enjoy the ride. [0] https://cora.aero/ https://cora.aero/
- SurrealSoul 8y agoFlying cars seems like a horrible idea. Pros: Alleviate ground congestion, potentially go faster Cons: Landing, air congestion, higher risk than driving I know this is still super fresh, but honestly moving our already horribly unsafe daily communte up several thousand feet in the sky doesn't make much sense to me. I seen people survive horrible car crashes, I haven't heard of anyone walking off a 1-on-1 plane crash
- icebraining 8y agoFlying cars seem great for rare occasions (including actual emergencies - ie, flying ambulances that could safely land on a residential street), not for daily commuting.
- SurrealSoul 8y agolike a helicopter?
- icebraining 8y agoHard to fit an helicopter here, but cars enter well: https://praqualquerlugar.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/alfama-4a.jpg?w=800 https://praqualquerlugar.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/alfama-...
- SurrealSoul 8y agohard to imagine landing a car there
- icebraining 8y agoThe BlackFly doesn't seem wider than two regular cars, so I don't see why not.
- ainiriand 8y agoEverything looks impossible until someone does it. And keep in mind that flying is actually safer than driving. Yes, if you have an accident the odds of being lethal are increased but keep in mind that it is not the same kind of flying. 10000m vs 100m and the speed is also different. Have you ever looked at the fatalities in commercial flying in the early 30s? Better systems were implemented and it is perfectly safe now. So even if there is still a long way to go, someone has to walk that way and take the rewards.
- growlist 8y agoI dread the future that includes traffic above our heads on anything like the scale of the traffic currently on the roads.
- ainiriand 8y agoThe traffic over your head is actually many times bigger than road traffic.
- bytematic 8y agoIs this a joke on the physical size of aircraft/spacecraft?
- 738472527784 8y agoAs of todays physics this is an impossible future, as long as there is no ~~game~~ epoch changing innovation on the energy sector.
- newfocogi 8y agoI think Musk's quip that most people would want their own personal flying taxi, but no one wants their neighbor to have one, is pretty insightful. As building density increases and our structures continue to scale in the third dimension, our transit system needs to as well and going down instead of up appears much less disruptive/dangerous. Of course, only time will tell what wins out - it won't necessarily be the most efficient option, as history of transit systems has demonstrated.
- elicash 8y agoPeople don't want to be underground for extended periods. If I were building an autonomous world from scratch, I'd want to design it so people are always above ground but "things" travel below ground. There's an Amazon patent for an underground delivery system via tunnels that would mitigate against some problems that autonomous cars will bring. Once we have fully autonomous cars that don't need people, most cars on the road won't have anyone in them. Rather than pizza delivery people, shipping delivery, etc -- even something like "oh let me send my friend a key to my apartment while I go on vacation." It will completely take over the roads unless we do something drastic. So send THAT traffic underground. We are going to need traffic lanes for "stuff." Let somebody commuting to work see the sun during their commute. Edit: One thing I'd add is that New York and other places used to have a basic version of this - a series of pneumatic tubes that connected the city. There's a city in the U.S. that does trash via pneumatic tubes. I don't think that's the ideal delivery system for other reasons, but worth pointing out that this isn't an entirely new idea. Here's a map: https://untappedcities-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Pneumatic-Tube-Mail-Network-NYC-Kate-Ascher-e1363302482168.jpg https://untappedcities-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/up...
- nradov 8y agoPeople drive through long tunnels or ride on subways every day. Being underground is not a problem.
- elicash 8y agoI used to take the DC Metrorail to work. Being above ground is absolutely nicer than being below ground if you've got the choice. I looked forward to the parts of that train commute that were above ground. There was even a part where we would come out of the tunnel and I'd look behind me to view the Washington Monument. It was great, especially at night.
- sokoloff 8y agoI still can't think of flying cars as anything other than a terrible compromised aircraft married to a terribly compromised car. There are 15K airports in the US. Drive a few miles over to one and get in a proper airplane seems like a better plan for most use cases I can think of. When I see the average driver competence on the roads, I don't see most of those people successfully commuting in a flying anything over the course of their lifetime.
- tntn 8y ago> When I see the average driver competence on the roads, I don't see most of those people successfully commuting in a flying anything over the course of their lifetime. Ah! But AI, you see! They'll fly themselves!
- hamilyon2 8y agoFully automated flying is much different from fully automated driving and arguably easier to pull off. Barrier is lower, so we will probably see it implemented in near future.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoIt’s already been implemented for a few years now. Planes can even easily take off and land on their own now.
- nradov 8y agoAutomated landing systems are only in very limited use, and require active monitoring by qualified human pilots who can immediately take over if something goes wrong. In general autopilots don't cope well with mechanical failures.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoThey can land by themselves, but the safety envelope demanded by the FAA and industry just means that they don’t. The ability is there if needed in a pinch.
- dzdt 8y agoLarry Page is not an idiot. Flying cars have giant unsurmountable flaws that should be apparant to anyone who is not an idiot. What gives?
- bobsil1 8y agoNew tech = not insurmountable
- gilbetron 8y agoThe tech is the easy part, it's the logistics and ramifications for failures. Blow a gasket on the road, and you come to a gradual stop. Do it in the air, and you have a minor disaster if anyone is underneath you.
- robotresearcher 8y agoHe wants one, and is a billionaire with billionaire buddies. He doesn’t need to make an Everyman product. There is a market for private helicopters now. These will require less training to use.
- jpm_sd 8y agoHe's a software guy and has too much money to play with.
- no1youknowz 8y agoSaw this the other day [0]: As battery technology gets better and with a similar vehicle as the one in the video is paired with AI to do the flying. I think it will be a viable technology in the future. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhKTCbbqbaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhKTCbbqbaE
- elvirs 8y agoaverage consumer has proved to be a very irresponsible car owner and shitty operator of the vehicle. and given the fact that people got more distractions behind the wheel compared to 20 years ago such as checking emails, checking into flights, disputing a credit card charges or whatever little things that you need to get done often and can be done over the phone. it would be better for everybody if these flying vehicles were not sold to everyone and only well paid professionals were allowed to operate them as taxis.
- shusson 8y agomy assumption is that they would be autonomous...
- gilbetron 8y agoI just imagine all the traffic on the ground, but now in the air. Because with flying cars you don't get to just fly where you want, as people fantasize. There needs to be aerial lanes, and they will be packed. Sounds like a shitty world. Also, whenever you see an accident or a car pulled over with mechanical issues imagine that happened in the air - where do you think flying cars will end up in that situation? Cars are dripping and leaking stuff all the time, where do you think it will end up with flying cars?
- socrates1998 8y agoWouldn't it be better if they had a driving component as well? I can't imagine everyone could take off from their own homes? That would just be so chaotic and dangerous. I would think it would be better to drive to a designated spot and take off from there. Still, I love these things and would absolutely love to see them work.