this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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Technology

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[–] Spoony 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I barely trust the average consumer to be able to drive, I can't imagine people being able to fly whenever. Also- who actually needs this and why?

[–] smellythief 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

who actually needs this and why?

Anyone who wants to avoid traffic. Or get somewhere without road access. It would be great if this world could be less covered in asphalt.

[–] Butterbee 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The lengths people will go to to avoid making public transit work.

[–] smellythief 2 points 1 year ago

Not sure i get your point. Public transit would also be better with less traffic and maybe stops located in ground-inaccessible places. In other words, flying public transit could also work.

[–] millie 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be fair, if this were actually real and were somehow practical, it could potentially save Massachusetts alone billions per year in road repair costs.

[–] Domiku 4 points 1 year ago

You still can’t have people flying over houses, etc. considering the number of traffic accidents and breakdowns, any failure in the air would lead to catastrophe on the ground below it.

[–] Array_X 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] CreativeTensors 9 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Hey, if someone can actually do it in a way that:

  • Satisfies public safety requirements
  • Satisfies all legal requirements
  • Restricts usage to trained pilots or autopilot
  • Runs on electricity or other low/zero emission fuel source
  • Lasts an appreciable amount of time before recharge

Then it may free up public roads enough to push pedestrian and bike usage while offering people a large incentive to go electric. I just don't think the technology for personal automobile-aircraft hybrids is there yet.

I'd love to be proven wrong.

[–] omenmis 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Idk, having small flying machines taking off everywhere will probably result in tons and tons of noise everywhere simply from the energy being output from the blades.

[–] Butterbee 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why make one more lane bro up in the sky when we can make trains? We already have the technology to solve traffic and it DOESN'T involve making more cars, flying or otherwise. All flying cars would do to traffic is jam it up at the places where you park, and also create traffic in unplanned places like people's attics and second floor apartments.

[–] CreativeTensors 3 points 1 year ago

So, what you're saying is maybe one more lane in space then? /s

FWIW, I totally agree. It's just that I've lost hope in people after disposable single-use Li-Po battery banks. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and the public will start to push more for public transit rather than buy the next new shiny.

I try, but it does feel kind of hopeless.

[–] doylio@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Don't forget a decibel limit! Our cities are loud enough with thousands of cars without throwing in the volume of a jet engine or helicopter

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

It also needs a battery that can handle thousands of charge cycles while being light enough to fly and powerful enough to run the motors.

Hopefully it's not using a lipo battery. Sending a huge lithium battery to the landfill every 200-300 charges isn't exactly environmentally friendly.

[–] CreativeTensors 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So, just CGI clips and no real footage? Call me jaded but this feels like every other time a flying car made buzz in the media only to never happen.

[–] smellythief 2 points 1 year ago

At least the CGI has gotten better since Hanna -Barbera did it.

[–] KilgoreTrout 9 points 1 year ago

So this is a scam, right?

[–] jaywalker 8 points 1 year ago

The video doesn’t give the real info until the end. The FAA gave them limited certification, for one of their prototypes. I would guess they are now allowed to operate their prototype over lightly populated areas, and only for R&D purposes.

[–] fixmycode@feddit.cl 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The only way I'd approve of a flying car is when we are past the full autonomous flying hive mind threshold.

[–] smellythief 1 points 1 year ago

I'm imagining what looks like flying schools of fish from the ground.

[–] imnapr@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is one of those things where I'll believe it when I see it. When I see one of these in the sky, I'll believe it.

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[–] zomtecos@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

Well. So far only animations. What’s bothering me: the car chassis is designed to be mainly „transparent“ like a grill. Where the hell do they store all the energy? Flying needs a huge amount of energy, especially when you don’t use wings to glide. Even if the car really gets build and flies. They would need huge batteries. Which would need a huge space. Which I cannot see where it could be within this design.

Conclusion: 🤷‍♂️

[–] maibrl@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

~A new lane~ A new dimension will fix traffic, I’m sure!

[–] smellythief 1 points 1 year ago

Spreading out current traffic across a larger (3D) area would make traffic less dense. Or just provide more space to fill with traffic I guess.

[–] rwhitisissle 3 points 1 year ago

This will never make it off the ground. The FAA is going to put extreme restrictions on this, like you can't fly the car in populated areas or you have designated zones where you're allowed to take off. And that's if they ever actually make it to real production. This honestly seems like the kind of thing that exists for a team to put together a prototype, absorb a ludicrous amount of venture capital for how likely it is for this to actually come to fruition, sell the company as quickly as possible to Google or Tesla for even more money, and then have the company that bought them realize they fell for a "cat in the bag" scam and then kill the project almost immediately after they realize that at no point was this ever going to resolve into a marketable product, since the things are almost certainly total deathtraps that not even your more suicidal brand of rich imbecile would go near.

[–] JoJo@social.fossware.space 3 points 1 year ago

Last five seconds.

This is gonna be another FSD-style fiasco. I wonder how much the FAA will let them get away with.

[–] millie 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sounds real green. 🙄 Also very real. 🙄

[–] Gork 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just want to have someone like the Avispa Buzzer from Far Cry 6 in real life. Does anyone know why it might not be possible? Is it a matter of insufficient lift for a craft of that size? It has a rotor on the front and back so those can counter rotate with respect to each other to cancel the torque. Then just need to set up a fly-by-wire avionics system to handle all the hovering.

I want a flying car that I was promised when I was a child dammit.

[–] CraigeryTheKid 1 points 1 year ago

Definitely a new/different take on the concept. Other than the clips in this video, I'm sad that I couldn't find a more detailed breakdown, such as diagrams of all the props, speed stats, where the motors are? Do the same motors turn the wheels? or are the props always pushing? Neat!