Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 218 posts

Re: Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

#141

Post by tim333 »

kordless wrote: post #69
Nokinside wrote: post #21

Helicopters and small planes already exist. We might have autonomous helicopters and small planes in the future, but flying car concept is flawed and not because it's hard to build one. - Preflight checks and flight safety. Larry should first build normal small aircraft that can do without constant manual checks before flight. This is actually good subgoal to work with even without flying cars in mind. Reliable infra…

The primary problem with flying things is that they currently rely on atmospheric lift. Loss of lift equals death of occupants and vehicle. It's only when we transition to alternate means of lift that flying will be "safe" for public consumption and operation.

Lots of people fly currently and there is seldom fatal loss of lift.

Re: Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

#142

Post by marvin »

This thread has the potential to become hilariously cringeworthy in a decade or so. I'll be checking back in five years to see if lightweight VTOL aircraft are still an idea that is "obviously stupid because we've tried it before and it didn't work".

My guess is that the progress in batteries and electric motors will have made this concept a lot more feasible by then. At some point it will be a completely obvious idea which will make us shake our heads at the skepticism it had before.

Re: Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

#143

Post by Natsu »

jeiting wrote: post #129
cpncrunch wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With modern FADEC engines, all of this is automated (from what I read...I've never actually flown anything with FADEC).

The recent diesel installs with FADEC that Redbird has been doing in 172s have a one button run up: You just hold the breaks and hit a button and the FADEC does the run up and checks all parameters and gives you a go/no-go. FADEC - Full Authority Digital Engine Control

And here I thought it was 'Automatic', but I haven't dealt with a FADEC since I wrote avionics test scripts almost 20 years ago.

Re: Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

#144

Post by rileyteige »

_audakel wrote: post #67
uptown wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Tearing down profitable office buildings to make flying car parking lots will be cost prohibitive and I doubt Joe Officeworker is interested in a $500 a month flying car space." Rooftops have been used for ages as landing pads for helicopters. I don't see why you couldn't do the same for these. And the article mentions adoption of the uber-model of non-ownership, so it's not like you'd need a parking lot of these si…

You could have the tesla self park / pick up feature. It drops you off and then Flys off some here where there is much space. Then you just call it back when you ready to leave.

Sounds like a lot of wasted energy if that thing has to fly any reasonable distance.

Re: Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

#145

Post by douglance »

zieski wrote: post #100
eblanshey wrote: post #94

It's great seeing a strong push toward aviation as a superior method of transportation. One of the side effects will be people gradual spreading out, away from huge city congestion, which is largely set up due to our transportation. It will enable us to live more in tune with nature, while not giving up the conveniences of having everything we need within short distance. I touched upon this in a blog post: https://me…

What if what we need is frequent in person interaction with other people? Spreading out further and further, eating up arable land with exurban homes, putting more distance between ourselves and others. It seems unhealthy for us and the "nature" you want to be in tune with. "Across the study period, 66 595 youths died by suicide, and rural suicide rates were nearly double those of urban areas for both males (19.93 an…

VR solves that.

Re: Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

#147

Post by thesimpsons1022 »

am I the only one that doesn't want flying cars? I want to be able to look up and see the sky, not traffic. I don't want drunk drivers ramming into buildings. I don't want to have to build a horizontal wall over my backyard for privacy. what benefit do they even have? I'd rather just have fast ground transportation

Re: Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

#148

Post by mattm »

thesimpsons1022 wrote: post #147

am I the only one that doesn't want flying cars? I want to be able to look up and see the sky, not traffic. I don't want drunk drivers ramming into buildings. I don't want to have to build a horizontal wall over my backyard for privacy. what benefit do they even have? I'd rather just have fast ground transportation

I think they would have to be self-flying cars to make it feasible.

Re: Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

#149

Post by tim333 »

6stringmerc wrote: post #125
NegativeK wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're associating "car" with "something a homeowner can regularly control." I associate "car" more with "a personal vehicle." I'd rather high speed chunks of metal not be under individual control, personally. Road or air.

That's fine, you can use whatever inaccurate terms you'd like but I won't share that approach. Personally, having grown up in an aviation family and being a studied gear-head, I simply don't share your confidence that individual control is inferior to automation at the root. In fact, I think until AI is comparable to the human brain, arguing that automation and programming is better is wrong; moreover it's unsuitable…

We have machine operated lifts and trains, almost self driving cars, aircraft autopilots and having witnessed my own efforts at flying a plane I think a computer could quite likely do a safer job.

Re: Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars

#150

Post by thesimpsons1022 »

mattm wrote: post #148
thesimpsons1022 wrote: post #147

am I the only one that doesn't want flying cars? I want to be able to look up and see the sky, not traffic. I don't want drunk drivers ramming into buildings. I don't want to have to build a horizontal wall over my backyard for privacy. what benefit do they even have? I'd rather just have fast ground transportation

I think they would have to be self-flying cars to make it feasible.

maybe this is cynical but I can imagine a steady stream of litter raining from the sky's as people toss trash out their windows
Post reply on HN