Terrafugia CEO Responds To "Flying Car" Criticism

waderoush writes "The majority of the comments on last week's Slashdot post It's Not a Flying Car — It's A Drivable Airplane were critical, even dismissive, of Terrafugia's work to build a two-passenger airplane with folding wings that's also certified for highway driving. We boiled down these criticisms to the dozen most commonly expressed points, and today we've published responses from Terrafugia CEO Carl Dietrich. While hybrid airplane-automobiles are an old (some would say laughable) idea, Dietrich argues that current materials and avionics technologies finally make the concept feasible."

Comments

Re:I predicted the demise of Tesla in 3 years

[Aranykai]

Man, for a collapsed economy, we must be doing pretty good.

Im enjoying a nice pizza tonight, and a few cold beers I bought on the way home from work. Ill admit gas and milk has gone up a bit, but its not to the point where I cant go about my daily life. If this is a collapsed economy, I say we leave it collapsed.

Re:unimaginable!

[nbert]

What I like about /. is that people are instantly thinking the obvious. There are other places where it takes hours to explain the general problem and the majority simply isn't informed enough to get it. I don't like to drop names, but it's stunning to read Mac related forums for example (I'm using a Mac myself so I can say this :D )

It's not a club for smart people, but it's a place to discuss basic ideas without slapping marketing statements at each other. Of course there are lots of people I strongly disagree with, but I have a chance to tell them how much I dislike their concept way after the article was on the main-page.

(and please don't mod me for this - I'm writing this because it's the way I feel. It would be rather awkward to state this just for the purpose of gaining mod-points)

You keep using that word

[blueZ3]

I do not think it means what you think it means

(My name is NOT Inago Montoya)

Re:Unimaginable? I beg to differ, but where'd it g

[RobBebop]

Off-topic mods for this article are reserved for anybody who mentions soviet Russia, Natalie portman and hot grits, or flying cars. Your helpful discussion of Backslash actually got a +5 Insightful mod.

Re:Thanks for the response

[Anonymous Coward]

For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0. % MD5SUM msg
8a7844f4466a355b388b6babd084f6f8c

Run in cygwin but I tested it with dos2unix and got the same checksum.

the real solution

[jollyreaper]

The problem with flying cars, as has been pointed out, are a matter of piloting. If we can automate air traffic control and the autopilot so that there's no human control required, then it's practical.

Flying Under The Influence.....

[IHC Navistar]

Let's see, what dangerous things do people do while driving:

1) Drink
2) Drive while sleepy
3) Take imparing edications (like painkillers)
4) Shave
5) Read the paper
6) Talk on cell phones
7) Fiddle with the radio
8) Drive recklessly
9) Ignore posted traffic signs
10) Eat .....and probably more. So, what is to stop his customers of "Suburban Pilots" from doing these things? Now, he wants to COMBINE the two.

In a worst-case scenario, a drunk or willfully impaired pilot will crash their plane and kill people on the ground. In a best case scenario, the pilot will crash and only kill themselves, eliminating the chance they will make the same bad choice again.

For some reason, this idiot thinks flying should be a casual activity. Unfortunately, that's not the case: Flying is NOT a casual activity, even for pilots. It may be relaxing and recreational, but even then its something that requires serious attention. I am not a pilot, but I am pretty sure pilots would not take the act of flying with the same approach as driving to the corner store.

Furthermore, there is the question of maintenance: As a mechanic, I've see nhow people maintain their cars: They don't. The biggest excuse is cost, with "It was making funny sounds", a "little light came on", or "I think something is wrong". Usually, people wait until a minor problem (such as an oil change being needed or a small radiator leak) becomes a major problem (engine seizes or radiator hose fails). If his target customers can't afford to perform maintenance on their cars WHEN ITS NEEDED, what's to say they'll fix their planes when it's needed?

Also, one needs to compare the accident rates for proffesionals (i.e. people who do it for a living, or spend the vast majority of their time doing it):

Driving: Compare the accident rates of proffesional drivers, such as stunt car drivers, test drivers, and race car drivers (who are driving outside of a racing environment) with those who drive to work, school, the store, etc.

Flying: Compare the accident rates of recreational pilots with those who fly for airlines.

The difference betwee the two isn't as significant as that between average drivers and professional drivers, but it will become far more pronounced if the idea of marketing these "cars/planes" succeeds. Plus, when a plane crashes, it does damage to whatever stops it, much like cars, only alot more since it's falling from tens of thousands of feet and moving at about 200 MPH.

Also, provided any insurance company insures it, just how much will it be? I seriously doubt this will pass a crash test, either from falling from the sky or getting hit by another car.

Someone needs to teach this guy: An exotic idea isn't always a good one. Hybrid planes/cars are a good example.