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Volocopter is the perfect example of what's wrong with "the german way" of thinking about transportation. Instead of improving public transportation, goods on

Volocopter is the perfect example of what's wrong with "the german way" of thinking about transportation. Instead of improving public transportation, goods on the rails, improving bicycle infrastructure, lots of effort is put into crowding the skys, too. All pushed by a blatantly incompetent minister who was fantasizing about "air taxis" and how they will improve our life, while rural Germany is still stuck on < 16 MBit internet connections. It's all just a giant clusterfuck with setting the wrong priorities.

jallasprit 5y ago
It is much harder to productify infrastructure improvements across the nation, meanwhile this drone can be sold in the thousands to retail operators and the likes (so the makers can get rich).
- rad_gruchalski 5y ago
  In Germany? These will hit the same problems as improving existing infrastructure. Want to pull fibre under the road? 18 months planning permissions. Dig ditches in rural areas? Well, some of the locals don’t like the noise or mud on the road, tough luck. They object and the whole process extends by months. Want to replace the roof? Better make sure you don’t make it higher than what local code allows! And use the same colour for the tiles… New road? 2 years. Improving drainage? 2 years. Everyone has something to say, everyone can object and block the nice things for everybody else. These will hit the same issues. People will complain about noise or just simply drones flying above. Soon it will turn out they can’t fly here, or there, or from there, or to there.
  - Aeolun 5y ago
    Is the US alternative, where people simply have no voice at all, better?
    - jcims 5y ago
      If the folks in the US had no voice, ‘NIMBY’ wouldn’t be a term we’re all familiar with.
    - phreeza 5y ago
      Do they not? I thought California high speed rail was impeded by NIMBYs for example?
  - nuerow 5y ago
    > In Germany? These will hit the same problems as improving existing infrastructure.* Germany already has outstanding roadway and railway infrastructure. DB, the parent company of DB Schenker, operates their ICEs in Germany and across Europe as well, and the only reason they can go at speeds up to 300km/h is the fact that they did all the right things putting together their highspeed rail network. I suggest you take a look to the amount of work, both technical and political, that is required to get a single railway line out of the paper and into the real world. This is something that in some cases requires even diplomatic work.
    - rad_gruchalski 5y ago
      Germany has Autobahn, plenty of good roads and yes, some railway lines are fairly decent. Stuttgart to Munich or Düsseldorf north comes to mind. But outside of main corridors, it ain’t that nice everywhere. An example is the A1 Autobahn through Eifel which would help offloading A61 (which is a mess already as it is).
  - LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
    But we have the best Gartenzwergs! https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/281462627714-0-1/s-l1000.jpg https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/281462627714-0-1/s-l1000.jpg
  - rawbot 5y ago
    > Dig ditches in rural areas? Well, some of the locals don’t like the noise or mud on the road, tough luck. The problem here in Germany is that they take an absurd amount of time for ANY road work. I've seen roads blocked for years, just to widen the sidewalk. In other countries I've lived in, these get done ASAP.
mschuster91 5y ago
It's not just Scheuer. The guy is only the public clown face / scapegoat. Blame the entire politics of the last 40 years, beginning with Kohl who tore down the fiber projects in favor of cable TV to counter "left-wing", government critical public TV, over Schröder who auctioned off the UMTS licenses for nearly 50 billion € in 2000 to achieve the infamous "schwarze Null" budget, to Merkel who broke one promise after another to bring Germany up to speed.
shoto_io 5y ago
Your comment is a perfect example of what’s wrong with “The German Way” of thinking about innovation. Instead of inventing the future, we want to maintain the past. That’s why Tesla was invented in the States and China has brought our Transrapid to the market. We used to be a people of inventors who embraced the possibilities that technology provides to shape the future. That’s why the automobile was invented here. The bicycle. And so much more. Today we just want to faster Internet to consume American Services even faster.
- nuerow 5y ago
  > Your comment is a perfect example of what’s wrong with “The German Way” of thinking about innovation. I feel your comment is misguided and frankly clueless. Research into point-to-point logistics has been a thing for the past decade thanks to developments in drones. One of their main markets is actually under-developed regions where investing in infrastructure is outright impossible. Another important market is actually automating parts of the logistics chain and removing people from the process. What this newspiece shows is the last decade or so of research coming to fruition. It's incomprehensible how you're criticizing autonomous drones as being "maintaining the past" but presenting tech from the 1960s that has virtually no commercial viability or practical use as being "the future".
  - shoto_io 5y ago
    I’m not sure if we have a misunderstanding here. I am not at all criticizing autonomous drones. I’m all for them. I was criticizing OPs lack of enthusiasm for them. He/She is comparing faster Internet and better bicycle roads to a highly innovative idea of drone logistics.
- martin_a 5y ago
  It's not about maintaining the past, but we are _so bad_ in utilizing the existing infrastructure efficiently, that we are now trying to build a completly new one in the airspace above us. Why not push what we have to the limits, gladly in innovative ways, instead of adding just another half-baked layer? > Today we just want to faster Internet to consume American Services even faster. Nah... I want faster internet so I can work from home in a rural area and don't have to spend a third of my income on rent, because I need to live close to my work because we don't have cheap and fast public transportation.
LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
Giggle. Have you heard about the idea of using Hovercrafts in the harbour, to ferry containers from one place to another? Because the road and rail-traffic is often maxed out already?

jallasprit 5y ago

It is much harder to productify infrastructure improvements across the nation, meanwhile this drone can be sold in the thousands to retail operators and the likes (so the makers can get rich).

rad_gruchalski 5y ago
In Germany? These will hit the same problems as improving existing infrastructure. Want to pull fibre under the road? 18 months planning permissions. Dig ditches in rural areas? Well, some of the locals don’t like the noise or mud on the road, tough luck. They object and the whole process extends by months. Want to replace the roof? Better make sure you don’t make it higher than what local code allows! And use the same colour for the tiles… New road? 2 years. Improving drainage? 2 years. Everyone has something to say, everyone can object and block the nice things for everybody else. These will hit the same issues. People will complain about noise or just simply drones flying above. Soon it will turn out they can’t fly here, or there, or from there, or to there.
- Aeolun 5y ago
  Is the US alternative, where people simply have no voice at all, better?
  - jcims 5y ago
    If the folks in the US had no voice, ‘NIMBY’ wouldn’t be a term we’re all familiar with.
  - phreeza 5y ago
    Do they not? I thought California high speed rail was impeded by NIMBYs for example?
- nuerow 5y ago
  > In Germany? These will hit the same problems as improving existing infrastructure.* Germany already has outstanding roadway and railway infrastructure. DB, the parent company of DB Schenker, operates their ICEs in Germany and across Europe as well, and the only reason they can go at speeds up to 300km/h is the fact that they did all the right things putting together their highspeed rail network. I suggest you take a look to the amount of work, both technical and political, that is required to get a single railway line out of the paper and into the real world. This is something that in some cases requires even diplomatic work.
  - rad_gruchalski 5y ago
    Germany has Autobahn, plenty of good roads and yes, some railway lines are fairly decent. Stuttgart to Munich or Düsseldorf north comes to mind. But outside of main corridors, it ain’t that nice everywhere. An example is the A1 Autobahn through Eifel which would help offloading A61 (which is a mess already as it is).
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  But we have the best Gartenzwergs! https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/281462627714-0-1/s-l1000.jpg https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/281462627714-0-1/s-l1000.jpg
- rawbot 5y ago
  > Dig ditches in rural areas? Well, some of the locals don’t like the noise or mud on the road, tough luck. The problem here in Germany is that they take an absurd amount of time for ANY road work. I've seen roads blocked for years, just to widen the sidewalk. In other countries I've lived in, these get done ASAP.

mschuster91 5y ago

It's not just Scheuer. The guy is only the public clown face / scapegoat. Blame the entire politics of the last 40 years, beginning with Kohl who tore down the fiber projects in favor of cable TV to counter "left-wing", government critical public TV, over Schröder who auctioned off the UMTS licenses for nearly 50 billion € in 2000 to achieve the infamous "schwarze Null" budget, to Merkel who broke one promise after another to bring Germany up to speed.

shoto_io 5y ago

Your comment is a perfect example of what’s wrong with “The German Way” of thinking about innovation. Instead of inventing the future, we want to maintain the past. That’s why Tesla was invented in the States and China has brought our Transrapid to the market. We used to be a people of inventors who embraced the possibilities that technology provides to shape the future. That’s why the automobile was invented here. The bicycle. And so much more. Today we just want to faster Internet to consume American Services even faster.

nuerow 5y ago
> Your comment is a perfect example of what’s wrong with “The German Way” of thinking about innovation. I feel your comment is misguided and frankly clueless. Research into point-to-point logistics has been a thing for the past decade thanks to developments in drones. One of their main markets is actually under-developed regions where investing in infrastructure is outright impossible. Another important market is actually automating parts of the logistics chain and removing people from the process. What this newspiece shows is the last decade or so of research coming to fruition. It's incomprehensible how you're criticizing autonomous drones as being "maintaining the past" but presenting tech from the 1960s that has virtually no commercial viability or practical use as being "the future".
- shoto_io 5y ago
  I’m not sure if we have a misunderstanding here. I am not at all criticizing autonomous drones. I’m all for them. I was criticizing OPs lack of enthusiasm for them. He/She is comparing faster Internet and better bicycle roads to a highly innovative idea of drone logistics.
martin_a 5y ago
It's not about maintaining the past, but we are _so bad_ in utilizing the existing infrastructure efficiently, that we are now trying to build a completly new one in the airspace above us. Why not push what we have to the limits, gladly in innovative ways, instead of adding just another half-baked layer? > Today we just want to faster Internet to consume American Services even faster. Nah... I want faster internet so I can work from home in a rural area and don't have to spend a third of my income on rent, because I need to live close to my work because we don't have cheap and fast public transportation.

LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago

Giggle. Have you heard about the idea of using Hovercrafts in the harbour, to ferry containers from one place to another? Because the road and rail-traffic is often maxed out already?