5 ms·

Flying cars seems like a horrible idea. Pros: Alleviate ground congestion, potentially go faster Cons: Landing, air congestion, higher risk than driving I kn

Flying 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 ago
Flying 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 ago
  like a helicopter?
  - icebraining 8y ago
    Hard 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 ago
      hard to imagine landing a car there
      - icebraining 8y ago
        The BlackFly doesn't seem wider than two regular cars, so I don't see why not.
ainiriand 8y ago
Everything 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.
- oblio 8y ago
  Commercial flights are super safe because there's a million regulations to follow. An airplane costs $100 million or so and is flown by a super trained crew. How is that going to be replicated for $20k cars?
  - dageshi 8y ago
    It probably won't, it might be replicated by million dollar automated flying taxi's though?
    - oblio 8y ago
      Could be. Isn't automated flying even harder than automated driving? After all, it's not going to be military drone flying with no obstacles, we're talking about flying and landing in an urban environment.
  - ainiriand 8y ago
    When commercial aviation started the regulation was really loose. There were not even a consenus on how to report accidents, how to tell the root cause, etc... We face a similar problem with flying cars. Can they be used as safely as standard cars are used? I think the bar is that low. But we should push for more and learn from mistakes done in road safety, like the need of humans to control your capacity to drive. Yes, it is going to be hard, but is going to be done eventually.
    - 8y ago
738472527784 8y ago
I think "flying car" should be reframed as 'noisy expensive conventional personal aircraft'. 'Flying car' is associated with what you see in scifi movies, they never use conventional aircraft tech, they can lock in space, don't burn oil, don't sound like an high-pitched overblown fan, don't have wings, ... They are piggy-backing on this image without delivering the necessary innovations. Unless someone hacks gravity or improves energy density of batteries beyond today's dreams, "flying cars" will stay a scam, it won't happen. More likely to see everyone riding segways by 2020... With global warming, the idea of vast distribution of personal aircrafts integrated into daily lives is beyond absurd, IMHO.
avoutthere 8y ago
> Flying cars seems like a horrible idea. It depends on the use case. For high-density urban areas, the challenges probably outweigh the benefits. But for low-density, rural/semi-rural regions, those who commute an hour or more could really benefit from such a vehicle. For example, hospital staff driving home after a long shift.
- beobab 8y ago
  That is a very good point. I had not considered that. Thanks.
mrec 8y ago
> I haven't heard of anyone walking off a 1-on-1 plane crash Offtopic and nitpicking, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Negev_mid-air_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Negev_mid-air_collision

icebraining 8y ago

Flying 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 ago
like a helicopter?
- icebraining 8y ago
  Hard 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 ago
    hard to imagine landing a car there
    - icebraining 8y ago
      The BlackFly doesn't seem wider than two regular cars, so I don't see why not.

ainiriand 8y ago

Everything 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.

oblio 8y ago
Commercial flights are super safe because there's a million regulations to follow. An airplane costs $100 million or so and is flown by a super trained crew. How is that going to be replicated for $20k cars?
- dageshi 8y ago
  It probably won't, it might be replicated by million dollar automated flying taxi's though?
  - oblio 8y ago
    Could be. Isn't automated flying even harder than automated driving? After all, it's not going to be military drone flying with no obstacles, we're talking about flying and landing in an urban environment.
- ainiriand 8y ago
  When commercial aviation started the regulation was really loose. There were not even a consenus on how to report accidents, how to tell the root cause, etc... We face a similar problem with flying cars. Can they be used as safely as standard cars are used? I think the bar is that low. But we should push for more and learn from mistakes done in road safety, like the need of humans to control your capacity to drive. Yes, it is going to be hard, but is going to be done eventually.
  - 8y ago

738472527784 8y ago

I think "flying car" should be reframed as 'noisy expensive conventional personal aircraft'. 'Flying car' is associated with what you see in scifi movies, they never use conventional aircraft tech, they can lock in space, don't burn oil, don't sound like an high-pitched overblown fan, don't have wings, ... They are piggy-backing on this image without delivering the necessary innovations. Unless someone hacks gravity or improves energy density of batteries beyond today's dreams, "flying cars" will stay a scam, it won't happen. More likely to see everyone riding segways by 2020... With global warming, the idea of vast distribution of personal aircrafts integrated into daily lives is beyond absurd, IMHO.

avoutthere 8y ago

> Flying cars seems like a horrible idea. It depends on the use case. For high-density urban areas, the challenges probably outweigh the benefits. But for low-density, rural/semi-rural regions, those who commute an hour or more could really benefit from such a vehicle. For example, hospital staff driving home after a long shift.

beobab 8y ago
That is a very good point. I had not considered that. Thanks.

mrec 8y ago

> I haven't heard of anyone walking off a 1-on-1 plane crash Offtopic and nitpicking, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Negev_mid-air_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Negev_mid-air_collision