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They would reduce traffic the same way subways do that: by getting people who might otherwise travel by personal auto off of the street entirely, and into anot

They would reduce traffic the same way subways do that: by getting people who might otherwise travel by personal auto off of the street entirely, and into another channel with a separate (though still finite) capacity. There are reasons that air travel won't do too much in this regard in the foreseeable future -- mostly around cost and the fact that ATC-managed airspace actually has quite a low capacity. Those are practical issues, not fundamentals.

bluGill 2y ago
Airspace is fundamentally low capacity because there is still congestion to get back on the ground. Worse airplanes must move at all times, you can't stop to avoid disaster, you must have room in all directions to maneuver around whatever is happening. Getting a few people in the air can help everyone if you can pull it off, but you can't get a lot in the air as airplanes need too much space. You can extend 2d space with bridges and tunnels a lot easier, but it isn't cheap. Which is why cities need metro systems - it is the only way to get masses of people into a dense area.
- amalcon 2y ago
  My sense (somewhat out of date) is that most flying car people consider VTOL and hovering to be fundamental requirements of the format. Helicopters (and other aircraft capable of VTOL and hovering) substantially mitigate both of these issues. If we're talking about fixed-wing, runway takeoff aircraft, then I absolutely agree with you. If we're not, I'm somewhat (but not highly) confident that coordinating these vehicles will be the long pole re: capacity. That's mostly because it's a really long pole. We haven't developed distributed actor algorithms for this the way we have for cars, it's unclear if this is actually possible, and there's no way the current way of doing ATC can handle the load that even 1% of upper middle class commuters could create.
  - bluGill 2y ago
    Even with vtol, wind wash is an issue and so you can't have takeoffs and landings nearly as often as needed for the whole to work. as you say we also don't have traffit control that works.
ta1243 2y ago
Where would they be parked?
- amalcon 2y ago
  In the same place where a car would be parked. Parking and traffic are both problems with cars, but they are not the same problem with cars. You can mitigate one without mitigating the other.
trgn 2y ago
Cars are noisy polluting trash and should ideally be put underground, like we do with excrement, not in the sky.

bluGill 2y ago

Airspace is fundamentally low capacity because there is still congestion to get back on the ground. Worse airplanes must move at all times, you can't stop to avoid disaster, you must have room in all directions to maneuver around whatever is happening. Getting a few people in the air can help everyone if you can pull it off, but you can't get a lot in the air as airplanes need too much space. You can extend 2d space with bridges and tunnels a lot easier, but it isn't cheap. Which is why cities need metro systems - it is the only way to get masses of people into a dense area.

amalcon 2y ago
My sense (somewhat out of date) is that most flying car people consider VTOL and hovering to be fundamental requirements of the format. Helicopters (and other aircraft capable of VTOL and hovering) substantially mitigate both of these issues. If we're talking about fixed-wing, runway takeoff aircraft, then I absolutely agree with you. If we're not, I'm somewhat (but not highly) confident that coordinating these vehicles will be the long pole re: capacity. That's mostly because it's a really long pole. We haven't developed distributed actor algorithms for this the way we have for cars, it's unclear if this is actually possible, and there's no way the current way of doing ATC can handle the load that even 1% of upper middle class commuters could create.
- bluGill 2y ago
  Even with vtol, wind wash is an issue and so you can't have takeoffs and landings nearly as often as needed for the whole to work. as you say we also don't have traffit control that works.

ta1243 2y ago

Where would they be parked?

amalcon 2y ago
In the same place where a car would be parked. Parking and traffic are both problems with cars, but they are not the same problem with cars. You can mitigate one without mitigating the other.

trgn 2y ago

Cars are noisy polluting trash and should ideally be put underground, like we do with excrement, not in the sky.