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This review doesn't spend much time on the flying car question specifically. Most of it is devoted to saying that energy should be cheaper and that we should us

This review doesn't spend much time on the flying car question specifically. Most of it is devoted to saying that energy should be cheaper and that we should use more of it. Let's imagine that the higher specific energy consumption and correspondingly higher fuel cost of flying cars is not a problem. For example, American households in the top income decile could quadruple their consumption of gasoline and it wouldn't be a financial hardship. So why don't high income Americans have flying cars? Why are $100k+ cars from luxury brands still stubbornly earthbound? Hall quotes a post on a message board suggesting that even if you had built a flying car and were ready to take to the air, you’d be shot down by the FAA, the mayor, the news media, the insurance company, and your neighbors. I can easily imagine some objections from the FAA, insurance company, and neighbors. There's nary a word here attempting to rebut them. Nor to explain how cheaper energy would solve any of these problems. It's nice to imagine that cheap energy would enable the dreams of science fiction authors circa 1970. In a few cases it would even be true. But probably not in most cases. There are already a few petro-states that have very cheap energy for all citizens. They don't have flying cars either.

jpm_sd 6y ago
Indeed. Wave your magic wand and replace every car in America with a helicopter, every garage with a helipad, and while you're at it, throw in free fuel. Why not? What results? Most likely, huge increases in accidents and fatalities. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/06/are-helicopters-safer-than-cars.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/06/are-helicopters-...
- mjevans 6y ago
  Indeed. Though for a more luxurious experience (for everyone) imagine that all roadways were subways and vehicles were electric instead of combustion powered. Additionally they could all be on rails and fully self driving in a pedestrian and accident free environment. That's where I'd like to spend all that energy.
  - germinalphrase 6y ago
    Tunnels in urban areas are wildly expensive, but it’s a cool vision. I would settle for elevated tracks.
    - xixixao 6y ago
      Unless those tracks are covered and sound proof, elevated highways cause a ton of noise. Even if they were, they block a lot of sunlight. I’d elevate the city instead. That’s essentially Manhattan.
      - germinalphrase 6y ago
        Which is essentially the hyperloop idea, no? Electric cars on skids in tunnels.
- trhway 6y ago
  you forgot an automated air traffic management system with the capabilities exceeding that of the best military radars of today, ie. capable of automatically tracking and routing thousands of those flying cars in the small volume, and the flying cars of course flying on autopilot following that system's directions. So, in a sense that is an infrastructure issue. That infrastructure isn't going to be built until there are a lot of those cars. A lot of those cars of course can't appear without support of such an infrastructure. Thus that slow progress - those Chinese human carrying octocopters will start flying here and there, and the Lilium and eVolo, ... Hardware-wise the "flying car" is cheap - https://youtu.be/EQK9m_OBVgY?t=27 https://youtu.be/EQK9m_OBVgY?t=27 - just need better batteries which will come in due time (and with the power and motors at least in duplicate or even triplicate contours the N-copters make for much higher safety than say a single rotor helicopter) . >[...lawyers..] This is the closest we can come to measuring the effect of taking more than a million of the country’s most talented and motivated people and put them to work making arguments and filing briefs against each other so their efforts mostly cancel out, instead of inventing, developing, and manufacturing things which could have made life better. to the lawyers we need to add law enforcement and armed forces and the damage resulting from the application of force. That is the tax our civilization pays for not having intelligence high enough to avoid that violence, be it a lawyer's action enforced by court or a soldier shooting the rifle. If anything, that is my version of Great Filter - progress being completely bogged down by that practice and infrastructure of violence. I don't think we'll be able to get out of it while staying in the confines of out current society on this planet (with the exception of a totally fantastical scenario - like aliens arrival - that would put a fire under the bottoms of our spines :), and only new colonies on Moon, Mars, etc. can develop new ways of societal co-existence.

jpm_sd 6y ago

Indeed. Wave your magic wand and replace every car in America with a helicopter, every garage with a helipad, and while you're at it, throw in free fuel. Why not? What results? Most likely, huge increases in accidents and fatalities. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/06/are-helicopters-safer-than-cars.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/06/are-helicopters-...

mjevans 6y ago
Indeed. Though for a more luxurious experience (for everyone) imagine that all roadways were subways and vehicles were electric instead of combustion powered. Additionally they could all be on rails and fully self driving in a pedestrian and accident free environment. That's where I'd like to spend all that energy.
- germinalphrase 6y ago
  Tunnels in urban areas are wildly expensive, but it’s a cool vision. I would settle for elevated tracks.
  - xixixao 6y ago
    Unless those tracks are covered and sound proof, elevated highways cause a ton of noise. Even if they were, they block a lot of sunlight. I’d elevate the city instead. That’s essentially Manhattan.
    - germinalphrase 6y ago
      Which is essentially the hyperloop idea, no? Electric cars on skids in tunnels.
trhway 6y ago
you forgot an automated air traffic management system with the capabilities exceeding that of the best military radars of today, ie. capable of automatically tracking and routing thousands of those flying cars in the small volume, and the flying cars of course flying on autopilot following that system's directions. So, in a sense that is an infrastructure issue. That infrastructure isn't going to be built until there are a lot of those cars. A lot of those cars of course can't appear without support of such an infrastructure. Thus that slow progress - those Chinese human carrying octocopters will start flying here and there, and the Lilium and eVolo, ... Hardware-wise the "flying car" is cheap - https://youtu.be/EQK9m_OBVgY?t=27 https://youtu.be/EQK9m_OBVgY?t=27 - just need better batteries which will come in due time (and with the power and motors at least in duplicate or even triplicate contours the N-copters make for much higher safety than say a single rotor helicopter) . >[...lawyers..] This is the closest we can come to measuring the effect of taking more than a million of the country’s most talented and motivated people and put them to work making arguments and filing briefs against each other so their efforts mostly cancel out, instead of inventing, developing, and manufacturing things which could have made life better. to the lawyers we need to add law enforcement and armed forces and the damage resulting from the application of force. That is the tax our civilization pays for not having intelligence high enough to avoid that violence, be it a lawyer's action enforced by court or a soldier shooting the rifle. If anything, that is my version of Great Filter - progress being completely bogged down by that practice and infrastructure of violence. I don't think we'll be able to get out of it while staying in the confines of out current society on this planet (with the exception of a totally fantastical scenario - like aliens arrival - that would put a fire under the bottoms of our spines :), and only new colonies on Moon, Mars, etc. can develop new ways of societal co-existence.