2 ms·

Also, the website underestimates one point. The air taxi is not on top of your house. You need to actually go from your house to the Lilium jet starting point

by rvnx 6y ago

Also, the website underestimates one point. The air taxi is not on top of your house. You need to actually go from your house to the Lilium jet starting point (at least 30 minutes or more in these complex urban setups) and you need to be in advance for the take-off, eventual security checks and security briefing (like any plane). After air turbulences, then you are at the Lake Tahoe stuck in the middle of nowhere. You can take your Instagram picture and wait for the next plane to go back. Was that really worth saving 1 hour in your life ? The alternative is to gather with friends on the morning, go get your friends with your car on the way, have a lunch picnic, have a tour around in the nature, discover unexpected places. Come home for dinner. No stress, no schedule, quality time with friends.

dheera 6y ago
Also I don't know about Lilium but one of my biggest gripes about Amtrak and other train infrastructure in the US, besides the sheer slow speed, is the complete lack of basic human necessities at the endpoints of travel. You get off the train and get basically thrown into a dilipidated, desolate parking lot full of locked cars, next to a locked building with no food, often not even bathrooms, no rain shelter, no bus to downtown for an hour, no rental bicycles, and sometimes no signal. That is a world of difference from Europe, China, or Japan, when you're usually thrown into a food court when you get off the train, and buses leaving every 10 minutes to everywhere you could possibly want to go. Planes replicate that drop-off experience in the US, and Lilium will need to as well in order for it to be a comfortable experience. That goes for even for suburban trips. How do you get from wherever it drops you off in Palo Alto to say, Facebook or Google's offices? Or the thousand other companies that don't have company shuttles?
- kaybe 6y ago
  The point is, the food court and shops usually make the train companies money because they pay high rent. That only works when enough passengers come through, which I'd guess might be the problem in the US? (eg in Japan, JR East makes 30-40% of its profits from the shops: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/12/30/business/jr-easts-in-station-stores-a-success-story/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/12/30/business/jr-eas...)
  - dheera 6y ago
    I guess. But what if they started with low rent, just enough to break even? Added comfort to passengers might increase the number of passengers to the train system itself to help get the cycle going.

by rvnx 6y ago

dheera 6y ago

Also I don't know about Lilium but one of my biggest gripes about Amtrak and other train infrastructure in the US, besides the sheer slow speed, is the complete lack of basic human necessities at the endpoints of travel. You get off the train and get basically thrown into a dilipidated, desolate parking lot full of locked cars, next to a locked building with no food, often not even bathrooms, no rain shelter, no bus to downtown for an hour, no rental bicycles, and sometimes no signal. That is a world of difference from Europe, China, or Japan, when you're usually thrown into a food court when you get off the train, and buses leaving every 10 minutes to everywhere you could possibly want to go. Planes replicate that drop-off experience in the US, and Lilium will need to as well in order for it to be a comfortable experience. That goes for even for suburban trips. How do you get from wherever it drops you off in Palo Alto to say, Facebook or Google's offices? Or the thousand other companies that don't have company shuttles?

kaybe 6y ago
The point is, the food court and shops usually make the train companies money because they pay high rent. That only works when enough passengers come through, which I'd guess might be the problem in the US? (eg in Japan, JR East makes 30-40% of its profits from the shops: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/12/30/business/jr-easts-in-station-stores-a-success-story/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/12/30/business/jr-eas...)
- dheera 6y ago
  I guess. But what if they started with low rent, just enough to break even? Added comfort to passengers might increase the number of passengers to the train system itself to help get the cycle going.