Is it a spaceship? No. Is it spiderman? No. It's a f**king flying car.
Uber has announced a long time ago about their plans to make flying bugatti's but now there is a whole market for these things, with lots of startups & big name companies (Boeing/Airbus/Toyota) getting in on the game. Do you guys actually seeing this come to fruition with all of the airsafety regulations that they have to abide by? Will people even be able to afford to use these "flying cars" or will it just be for the super wealthy if it does get legislated. It does sound like a good idea to beat traffic congestion but again, what's the difference between these & helicopter's. It's the same concept right?
Google Terrafugia... they've been at it since like late 2006. Website claims that they're nearing production / ready to ship in the next 3 years and even claim to have received all legal considerations. Whether it is practical / affordable is yet to be decided. Would be pretty cool though...
Yeah I just googled them and they seem to be a pretty big player in this industry. Would be so cool to see a floating toyota or some shit above your head on the way to work. What is the difference in the concept between a flying car and a helicopter though? Other than the fact that some flying cars will be automated.
Flying car would (at least with the design terrafugia went for) take off / land / fly like a plane (require runway / long stretch of highway etc) whereas a helicopter has the spinning rotors up top. (Helicopter can also VTOL (vertical take off and land) whereas a flying car likely wouldn't be able to.
While I think flying cars would be extremely ‘cool’, I just don’t know that they will ever take off (at least in the next century-ish). Here’s the problem: you screw up in a big way driving a car, and maybe kill yourself/others, but more likely total your car, cause some property damage, and break some bones. You screw up in a small way driving a car, and you maybe correct it and nothing happens, and at worst, you maybe get a flat tire, etc. Screw up in a big way flying a car: dead. Screw up in a little way flying a car: also probably dead.
I don’t know much about the industry, and I’d love to see it happen, but there would need to be some serious safety precautions (maybe there are, I’m admittedly very uninformed).
If they have pilots, it’s a different story, but that really hurts the practicality/affordability of it.
Well you presumably wouldn't be allowed to drive / fly / own one of these without a pilot's license.
Bet some similar arguments were made for horse buggies vs cars back in the day.
I honestly believe that it will.
But not the way that we think of it, where everyone is flying their own vehicle/car and able to control it. It would require every single flight to be autonomous and operate on massive scale ATC service.
You won't be zooming through the sky and be able to control the path, but you'll be able to order Uber Flight and at exactly the time it arrives, you step in and sit down, it locks and it takes you to your place based on an autopilot.
Now that could take off and if possible to have it run on the ground and the sky it could make since in an autonomous transportation society.
I agree, I saw somewhere that UBER was planning an autonomous flying car project, rather than a manned driver one. Also, there are so many car projects these days planning driverless cars, some without even having a steering wheel, more like a limousine with a driver. Check out the V&A museum in London if you wanna see all the cool new tech currently in development
I heard a podcast on this topic. The speaker was Cathie Woods from ARK (I think its a fund that specializes in disruptive tech). She said that the major difference is the price point. Though I don't recall why a flying car would be cheaper vs a helicopter. She said that flying cars will drop a price of a cab ride to the airport (from Manhattan to JFK) to around 5-6 bucks and the flying cars would be around 20-50 bucks (pulling this out of my ass. I don't remember). It was an interesting talk nonetheless. It was an episode on invest like the best if you are interested.
Yeah there are some really interesting TED talks on this topic but none have come to fruition just yet but most are talking about just clearing up stuff to do with regulation but other than that all of the tech is complete and ready to go.
Can you direct me to the TED talk? I haven't heard that the tech is complete and ready to go.
I do see these things coming, but not in the U.S. soon in a ubiquitous manner. They'll probably be all over the Middle East and Asia way before Western Europe and North America. The regulators will dig in and make it a nightmare for years to come.
Ongoing maintenance will be a huge issue. How many people forget to change the oil in their car? Do that with your flying drone and you're dead - and so is everyone beneath you.
Idk if you should equate maintenance with some dumb dude forgetting to change oil. Probably should equate it to how rare airplane accidents are compared to auto collisions imo. I feel like a big part of this will be automated as someone above mentioned and that should get rid of most of men-made issues.
I think the VTOLs are mostly supposed to be electric, which gets rid of most of the maintenance in general.
Neil deGrasse says otherwise. I'll side with him on this one.
His point is that we have better modes of transportation than flying cars--the subway and tunnels. He's right from a purely numeric standpoint, but I'm not sure flying cars are really meant to solve a mass transit problem, nor do flying cars require tens of billions of dollars in public infrastructure costs. But his point is taken--flying cars don't really solve a mass transit problem so where would the critical mass of people needed for it to be economically viable come from? That really does puzzle me. Aside from the regulatory burden, the lack of solved problems is why I see flying cars being some novelty act of the hyper-rich of Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. They simply don't solve a problem for a mass number of people.
I didn't watch the video above but just to chime in my 2 cents, I think its part of the big picture of new form of mobility. Flying cars on its own doesn't really solve the problem for mass number of people but I think the idea is that flying cars along with autonomous driving cars have the potential to do so. From what I've heard and read autonomous driving and flying cars (also driven autonomously) will drop the cost of mobility dramatically. For example, people would have an option to either uber to JFK for 6 bucks or Fly to JFK for 40 bucks or so. Flying just gives more option and divert more cars out of the congested road system. I hope I live long enough to see where this thing goes.
Yeah, I definitely hear what you're saying. But that brings me back around to the question about critical mass of use. I think--and I could be super wrong about this (it's SO hard to tell right now)--that the mass adoption of autonomous cars will vastly free up traffic due to their efficient method of driving, and they'll be luxurious and peaceful, and also extraordinarily affordable--I think autonomous cars will be a huge hit for consumers.
So, that circles back around to flying cars--if autonomous cars an insanely affordable huge hit, can flying cars achieve the mass of ridership needed to make them economically viable (outside of the rich)? If you can go travel the 30 miles to the airport for $10 at an average highway speed of 90 MPH in a luxury autonomous vehicle, are you likely to opt for a materially more expensive flying car? I don't know the answer, but it's the issue I'm struggling with regarding flying cars.
His bumper flying car idea using magnets won't help in a head-on collision at high speed. Even if it prevents the cars from being damaged, being knocked away by the magnetic force could cause the flying cars to lose balance. It's easy to lose balance in the air, and you'll probably die if you don't have enough time to recover. Even if you recover it'll still scare the shit out of you.
Yes or No - Reason for getting a flying car (Originally Posted: 04/03/2012)
Cool, a flying car:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0403/Terrafugi…
What would your reason be for getting one?
I'd get one if I wanted to find a creative way to committ a surprise suicide.
I'd get one if Xzibit pimps it out. Candy red, please.
Would prefer the flying helicopter from the video.
Oh man, could you imagine going down the highway, having a cop turn on his lights, and just flying off?!
Or driving into gridlock traffic in the morning and saying "fuck it I'm flying."
But realistically I'd probably kill myself within 3 months of owning one of those things.
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