4 ms·
More than one of the new flying car / flying taxi / electric plane concepts are autonomous. Imo, this tech is more about: 1. Making short flights more viable
by noahtallen 5y ago
More than one of the new flying car / flying taxi / electric plane concepts are autonomous. Imo, this tech is more about:
1. Making short flights more viable
2. Making electric planes more viable
3. Seeing if AI is viable as a pilot
I also really doubt the FAA is going to just let anyone fly an electric “car”, given how non-trivial getting a pilot’s license is. Maybe there’s a middle ground for drone-type planes which probably have a “simpler” flight model than a plane or helicopter, but I can’t see it being just anyone. Even flying at night or flying in a cloud requires even further licensing and training since you can’t see where you’re going like you can with a car. Can’t see that going away either
- awillen 5y agoRight now my understanding is many of the eVTOL companies are trying to make the UI simple enough that it does not require a pilot, but rather an operator, which is a much lower bar in terms of training. The objective is then really to use these as air taxis/Ubers, not individually owned cars. United, for example, is planning to use them to shuttle passengers to/from LAX, which makes a ton of sense, because they can go from designated points (as opposed to something like curbside pickup, where they'd have to find space to land), and they're hitting an ideal use case of avoiding traffic that is predictably heavy. Obviously if/when AI is viable, that makes them even more useful.