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YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

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Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#131

Post by dymk »

briandear wrote: post #79
npunt wrote: post #42

These don't look safe, even assuming perfect mechanical reliability, because humans will be piloting them over major population centers. Humans are generally dumb and inattentive, and this particular vehicle looks like it would attract especially dumb humans who'd use them to try dumb things. Since they won't need any piloting certification, this is basically offloading risk onto everyone on the streets below. I'd fe…

> then the only real issue is the noise pollution I live on Moffett Field next to the 101 -- the vehicles from the 101 are far more annoying than the airplanes. Just listen to traffic noise pretty much in any urban or suburban environment. The Caltrain sounds like -- well, a freight train. My point is that if we cared about noise pollution, we'd be paying more attention to the everyday noise all around us and develop…

Airplanes are a few orders of magnitude farther away than what these vehicles are suggested to fly at.

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#132

Post by nradov »

dmayman wrote: post #90
toomanybeersies wrote: post #75

Glenn Martin and Martin Jetpack [0] (Glenn left the company in 2015 though) has been trying to build and bring to market something similar for the past decade (development has been going on decades before that). There's apparent commercial, private, and government interest in the device, but somehow that hasn't actually manifested into a finished and delivered product. When Glenn spoke to a group of potential investo…

Our tech could not be more different to the MJP. Theirs was a gasoline engine powering a pair of ducted fans. Too many single points of failure and never able to keep the engine cool, not possible to fly much faster than 60mph. Ours is 1/3rd the size, will fly at 4x the speed. We’ve flown our jetpacks all over the world. We already have a development agreement with the US Navy. They are perfect for overt (perhaps not…

Would you be willing to tell us how you plan to handle power loss failures? Some other powered lift aircraft have had a "death zone" altitude range: too high for the pilot to survive a crash but too low to deploy a parachute.

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#134

Post by orky56 »

snowmaker wrote: post #78
chaosprophet wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could YC pro-actively get in touch with the folks already working on the project? Sounds like they would be your best bet at success.

That's a good idea. I just emailed them.

Moonshots + Resources = Success. Love to see it in action!

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#136

Post by JimboOmega »

Judgmentality wrote: post #118
probe wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really fascinating - can you talk a little bit more about your experiences? You always hear about trying moonshots but I’ve never heard someone who went reverse and was happier!

I can't speak for the person you're responding to, but as someone who also started (and failed) a moonshot company I can chime in. To grossly oversimplify, failure (especially when you put everything into something) can make people jaded. The breaking point for everyone is different, but eventually you just don't want to try the pie-in-the-sky idea because you remember how painful the failure is, how many years of yo…

But I've been wondering, why not make the shitload of money first, and once you've got many years saved, then go off and do a moonshot?

The usual explanation is something about lifestyle and mortgages and children and so on, but whether you earn the money in your 20s and do a moonshot in your 30s, or do the moonshot in your 20s and earn money in your 30s, don't you wind up at the same place either way?

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#137

Post by shinryuu »

As seen on twitter, and I fully agree.

This is the biggest problem in the world, according to YC. As befits the title “moonshot,” it’s the most pressing problem we face. It’s SO HARD that we might not ever fully solve it, but it’s SO IMPORTANT to society that we should fund it anyway.

Homelessness? Hunger? Nope: A flying motorcycle.

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#138

Post by jchallis »

onion2k wrote: post #98

Maybe I have a different definition of the word, but I wouldn't describe this as a moonshot. A "moonshot" is something incredibly hard to do that will have a huge impact on society if you manage it. Building a (really cool) $380k toy won't impact very many people at all.

Respectfully disagree.

One, it normalizes truly radical engineering projects (look higher in the thread to see building an artificial kidney). If YC signals it sees a jet bike as acceptable, imagine all of the ideas that seem just a bit too crazy that become possible.

Two, toys are generally the first or second version of truly radical technologies. Compared to a motorcycle, yes this looks extremely dangerous. Compared to a helicopter - down right low risk.

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#139

Post by jxub »

fold_left wrote: post #95

Supposing that they succeed, become more affordable, and most people commute to work with them - would pollution and air quality levels be better or worse?

I guess worse, as avgas has higher lead content and contaminates more. However, they have room to experiment with different types of propellants and engines.

Let's hope the sky doesn't become a tragedy of the commons in the same way motorways did.

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