For me the moonshot problem I'd like to see solved would be trash. Literally! I've been to New York the first class world city where they pile plastic bags full of trash outside the houses and been to leafy suburbs in Europe where they put these bags in boxes and leave them outside too. Meanwhile in developing countries trash causes real pollution and health issues. But in all places it's people create waste and the waste accrues and then the waste then may be moved about. One possible solution for non recyclables would be some kind of composting / incineration-generation device to convert the trash into organics and/or electricity.
YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
151–160 of 313 posts
Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
People do crazy shenanigans on motorcycles in 2D already. Source: owned sportbikes, have the titanium implants to show as my "credentials". Can't imagine the stupid s%%t some are going to do in 3D.
This! So back in the day (fault of bad meds) I was sometimes a crazy driver. Poor impulse control. Drive it like you stole it. Whatever. But hey. I'm still alive, and I never got anyone else seriously injured or killed. But anyway, one afternoon I was doing slalom at ~90 mph through ~70 mph traffic. And then, out of nowhere, this dude on a racing bike blew through at 140 mph or more. And we were all damn lucky that I…
I promise that was not me. I don't do that.
I do other things.
Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
#153Where are they getting the engine?
You can get model aircraft jet engines with enough power for this.[1] Various human-carrying craft have been built that way, such as the Zapata Flyboard.[2] But the engines have a lifespan measured in hours and not enough reliability for carrying humans. That's why all the demo videos of these things are over water, or tethered.
People have been trying to build small, cheap jet engines for decades. "Small" has been done. Cheap, no. Below bizjet size, the price doesn't go down much. Which is why general aviation is still running mostly on pistons. The 1960s Williams jetpack (not the Bell rocket belt) used an engine intended for cruise missiles.
If they've cracked the small jet engine problem, there's a big market for those, without trying to package them as jetpacks or motorcycles. Otherwise, it's just another demo rig.
The video is a bit suspicious. It's very quiet. You can hear the boats over it. It doesn't blow stuff around. It doesn't move his clothing. It doesn't ripple the water even at low altitude. Other videos of small jet engines are very noisy and have lots of jet blast.
[1] http://www.jetcat.de/jetcat/Kataloge/JetCat%20ENGINES.pdf
Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
#154One of the excellent things about YC is how they are completely unphased by moonshots. I don't know of any other organization that is nearly as supportive of ideas that would literally be called crazy other places. 3.5 years ago my cofounder were working on what was actually becoming an okay telecom referral business at the YC Fellowship, but my cofounder and I weren't happy. Pretty much every partner there enthusias…
I'm not sure I'd call that a moonshot. Difficult and maybe crazy, but modern agriculture clearly already exists and works, unlike driverless cars for example.
I mean... we're trying to end human hunger for a few hundred million people. Thank you for believing in us? No one has ever told me that it sounds more plausible than driverless cars. I'm torn between puffing up my chest and taking the compliment.
Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
#155Maybe 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. Compar…
Compared to a helicopter - down right low risk.
How is this lower risk than a helicopter? If a helicopter fails it doesn't just drop out of the sky; it can autorotate relatively safely to the ground. Autorotor flight is a safety feature taught to every helicopter pilot. People have walked away from helicopter crashes. A jetbike presumably won't have that feature.
Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
#156I know it's really hard to predict what people will or won't want in the future, but... Would people want this, even if it worked really well?
Yeah, I'm not sure about that but the tech can be used with different approaches.
Owning the jetpack outright seems like a sort of "high octane for rich people entertainment" play, which you could compare to the Tesla roadster approach.
You could even have some bungee jumping/jet ski equivalent of it where you rent it for a couple hours.
Longer term, maybe you could have a jetpack/drone Uber-type merge, where you can have your jetpack delivered on demand, go where you want in a quick and entertaining way, and dispose of it until you need one for the ride back.
Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
#157For me the moonshot problem I'd like to see solved would be trash. Literally! I've been to New York the first class world city where they pile plastic bags full of trash outside the houses and been to leafy suburbs in Europe where they put these bags in boxes and leave them outside too. Meanwhile in developing countries trash causes real pollution and health issues. But in all places it's people create waste and the…
> composting / incineration-generation device to convert the trash into organics and/or electricity.
This is extremely widespread and already industrialised.
Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
#158Since they're not seriously expecting getting back the money from the "flying motorcycle" (and even if they do for this, there are other case where it's obvious nothing will come out), I wonder what the scheme is -- e.g. it's other people's money, there are some kind of subsidies, -- or are the investors just so rich they don't care?
Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
#159I hate this for so many reasons. One of those 'future' products like clear glass screen and bendable phones that are just, well, stupid. Am I the only person that sees that?
Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
You for real?
Absolutely. I work for YC. An artificial kidney would transform the lives of millions of people on dialysis. It's worth trying to build one even if the chance of success is only 1%.
Then get people behind: https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat4782 on the phone. I feel like SJ Park is going to be one of the big brains behind artificial organ revolution.