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Flying cars? Yes, no, hell no?

Do you think we will ever have flying cars?

  • Total voters
    20
Gingerbread Demon

Gingerbread Demon

Yelling at the Vorlons
Premium Member
So do you really think anything like this is ever likely to happen, that we get consumer friendly flying vehicles or anything that seems remotely practical for regular commutes or use both on the road and in the air?

I mean it's amusing to see some of the people promoting these things and this all just seems way too good to be true when you have people making claims like they are just two years away from market.
 
Hope not, especially if they make anything even closely resembling an annoying high-pitched "BBBBBBBBBBBBBbbbbbbbb...." sound. òvó
 
Birb-of-Prey said:
Hope not, especially if they make anything even closely resembling an annoying high-pitched "BBBBBBBBBBBBBbbbbbbbb...." sound. òvó
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I don't think you have anything to worry about. IF this happens it will still be a niche thing that the uber wealthy will want and the common folk will still have cars and regular things with wheels.
 
Here's the up side...

If traffic cops start patrolling the airways, ground car travel is going to be unregulated heaven.

Wouldn't that be hilarious if that's what Mad Max was really about? The middle class up have cold fusion and flying cars, and it's just the ground bound hillbilly dipshits who are fighting over the last of the gasoline.
 
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shapeshifter said:
Hell no! I have seen how some people drive, I would not want to share airspace with them.
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E-DUB said:
Amen, people are idiots enough in two dimensions.
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Too right. What happens when one of those flying cars comes raining down on your house?

All of that trraffic in the air, there's gonna be some accidents. And all of a sudden those flying cars become so much space debris ready to rain down on anyone and everyone. No one would be safe anywhere.

And even without accidents: How the hell can you keep traffic safe up there in the sky? No lanes, no traffic lights, no nothing. Also, good luck getting police cars up there in all that mess!

It's not gonna be like Coruscant or The Fifth Element. A flying car can't STOP in the air. And there's another logical conundrum: A car that is safe enough to drive on the ground, will be too heavy to fly. And vice versa.
 
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Dr. San Guinary said:
Why the hell do cars even NEED to fly, anyway? What's the logical reason? What benefit would that bring us?

Much better to have true, universal Mass Transit. Then cars wouldn't even be required at all!

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I have seen that video a ton of times and it's a neat idea but who would build and maintain the network of pod tracks, stations to get on and off, and also how much would a trip in a pod cost?
 
The question of who would build and pay for such a system is legitimate, I'll grant that.

But stations? That's the beauty of it. With real, universal, personal mass transit, there are no stations. A pod would be available whenever and wherever you wanted it. No stations, no waiting. Wherever you happen to be, whatever time of the day or night...there'd be a pod waiting.

Now try and improve on THAT with a flying :censored:ing car. :lol:
 
If you think the FAA or any other aviation authority is going to let the random driver go fly, you're mistaken.

The margin for error when flying is much smaller. You can't just pull to the side of the road if your vehicle breaks down.

Flying will always be something that requires expensive training and lots of time before you can even get to the sky.
 
I suspect "Flying cars" if they ever get made, are going to be a very small niche VTOL vehicle. What will they do that can't be done better by helicopters? They'll have zero autogyro ability, they'll be more expensive than a dedicated flying vehicle, will be subject to the same aviation rules, and their potential use as a terror weapons (Imagine Charlottesville attack but much worse).

Ultralights, microlights, ppg's, ppm's, gyrocopters, have all been around for quite awhile now to lower the cost of entry for people interested in powered flight to the minimum, but you still don't see the kind of interest in them that there was in , say, the early 1980s (or maybe I am wrong). Admittedly none of these are practical daily commuters (yes we've all seen the video of the couple in the ultralight going to a Burger King in Canada. There will always be outliers).

I suppose the dream of the flying car was the idea that flying could become part of a daily lifestyle, but I don't think that's practical now, or really ever, for all but the most ridiculously wealthy. And with Tesla AI's currently killing motorcyclists I don't trust the idea of handing over those responsibilities to machines to bypass training requirements.
 
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