This could turn into a Clive Sinclair obsession with his car!
Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
51–60 of 242 posts
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#52Do we actually want flying cars? They are probably less efficient because you have to overcome gravity, they are probably going to be pretty noisy, falling out of the sky and smashing into the ground is a new failure mode, ... Flying cars are certainly a nice gadget, but do we really need or want them? I can only think of two good arguments for flying cars, entering the third dimension if we run out of space on the s…
Its not going to be flying cars as in a replacement of cars, not for a long time. What is needed is short "hops" in crowded areas.
San Jose -> SF is the example in the article that Uber gave.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#53[deleted]
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#54I hope they fly themselves as well. Humans can barely manage to safely pilot a car in 2 dimensions. I don't want to think of the carnage that would result if we took existing traffic and moved it 10,000 feet up in the air. Every fender bender would become a multiple fatality.
It's ok, autonomous flying cars will save the day
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#55Don't feed the google!
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#56Larry loves flying cars. I was visiting Google I want to say at least five years ago, and on that day they happen to have a "flying car showcase". Larry had invited companies with flying car prototypes to showcase their items, and they were for sale (for about $300K - $500K, well within the affordability range of the pre-IPO folks). They were basically just cars with foldable wings, so they were more like cars that could turn into small planes.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#57Do we actually want flying cars? They are probably less efficient because you have to overcome gravity, they are probably going to be pretty noisy, falling out of the sky and smashing into the ground is a new failure mode, ... Flying cars are certainly a nice gadget, but do we really need or want them? I can only think of two good arguments for flying cars, entering the third dimension if we run out of space on the s…
Yeah, I don't know either. Maybe don't think of them as flying cars, but instead as cheap helicopters on-demand.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#58I'm saying it now. Flying cars for the general population is just not going to happen until the repulsor lift is invented, and ubiquitous with all aircraft. Many, many years into the future. Long after those of us on HN are gone. There is just zero need for this right now, and is just silly nonsense. Work on making our ground systems 100% safe, efficient, and reliable first.
Why not? With self driving, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than autonomous cars. Any point in a 30 mile typical travel radius is a <15 minute flight.
Cost and safety.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#59I'm saying it now. Flying cars for the general population is just not going to happen until the repulsor lift is invented, and ubiquitous with all aircraft. Many, many years into the future. Long after those of us on HN are gone. There is just zero need for this right now, and is just silly nonsense. Work on making our ground systems 100% safe, efficient, and reliable first.
Why not? With self driving, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than autonomous cars. Any point in a 30 mile typical travel radius is a <15 minute flight.
^ This. Think about the capacity constraints during your typical commute. All those times you have ever been held up in traffic could be massively diminished thanks to increase short-hop flight commutes.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
But their entire path would require a drop zone. So in effect, there would be these long strips on the ground mirroring the flight paths of these flying cars. You might even run out of space on the ground for drop zones.
With the type of aircraft in the article, they could come down like helicopters do, right?
I figured that the drop zone would be used if the vehicle encountered some failure, and had to land immediately (or crash land even), which would prevent it from continuing flight to a smaller drop zone that's some distance away.