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Uber's 'Elevate' Project Aims To Bring Flying Electric Cars To Cities By 2026 (businessinsider.com)
Uber has revealed a new project through which it aims to bring flying cars to commuters by 2026. The company published a white paper today outlining its plans for Uber Elevate, a network of on-demand electric aircraft. Business Insider adds: Known as VTOL aircraft -- short for Vertical Take-Off and Landing -- the aircraft would be used to shorten commute times in busy cities, turning a two-hour drive into a 15-minute trip. According to a piece out from Wired on the new plans, Uber doesn't plan to build the aircraft themselves. The ride-hailing company will bring together private companies and the government to deal with the larger issues of making this project a reality, Wired reports. The vehicles would be able to travel at about 150 mph for up to 100 miles and carry multiple people, including a pilot, according to Wired.
Cars can't even drive on the road autonomously yet.
Day traders? Or are they diversifying and this is their new division to provide content to click bait sites such as ./ ?
"bring together private companies and the government to deal with the larger issues"
On second thought, maybe uber is laying the groundwork to run for office in 2020.
The ride-hailing company will bring together private companies and the government to deal with the larger issues of making this project a reality
"We don't actually want to do any of the work. You guys handle that. We just want the profits."
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
FINALLY we get our flying cars.
Good thing it's only 10 years out
Wow. Flying cars, eh? Is there *anything* that Uber can't do? /s
In other words, helicopters run as taxis.
It will leave from a terminal, not from where you are. It will arrive at a terminal, not your destination. It will go on a schedule, not when you're ready. It will be a lot more expensive than a bus ticket. It won't work in bad weather. There will be TSA (unless we come to our senses before 2026).
It's not an inherently bad idea, but who is it for? Who'll be willing to pay the fare? Who has a 2 hour commute?
Are they going to swap out the battery with a charged one for the return trip? And why are they saying it will be quiet? Are helicopters loud because of combustion, or because the blades disturb the air?
They should announce that too since it has about the same percent of it happening in 10 years.
"Vertical Take-off and Landing" (VTOL) vehicle is marketing bullshit for helicopter. Why don't they try working with existing technology? Or at least show us a mass-producible electric-powered helicopter before telling us about your ride-sharing services with one. Seems like putting the cart before the horse. One step at a time there Uber, but thanks for the PR update.
this makes me think of this: http://imgur.com/a/44qcp
Flying firefighters, in the year 2000. I wouldn't pour any money in Uber's vision at this point.
Hahaha! Is it April Fools Day already?! I really needed that laugh, thanks guys!
Pay attention to meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's what this sounds like. No basis in reality, just some outrageous, fantastic press release to get some free advertising for Uber. *Ignore*
Whereas I'm not 100% against flying cars. I'm 100% against Uber being the ones to deliver them.
A few flying cars in the sky might not be a major problem. When you get hundreds of them in a single city, that's when it starts getting a mess. Hundreds of one ton combustible devices flying over my head at the same time... Needs a lot of thought on safety.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I just don't see flying cars being a reality until we can figure out the whole gravity problem.
......free and cheap missiles for those with modest hacking skills.
All how will we deal with catastrophic engine failure? Or a BSOD?
Right now cars have limited destructive capabilities when things go bad, and the damage in the vast majority of the time is confined to the roads.
Flying cars, only ten years away since 1930.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
Does this plan involve inventing Mr. Fusion reactors?
What known power source exists capable of running an electric VTOL aircraft? The only thing I can think of is gas turbine driving a generator, at which point it's not really electric and efficiency wise you might as well just use that as shaft power. Certainly no current battery technology is capable of the power density required to drive a VTOL aircraft.
the aircraft would be used to shorten commute times in busy cities
Obviously the person who thought up this idea has no idea how traffic in cities work, let alone the other issue of how to navigate between tall, narrowly-spaced buildings.
And no, the chase scene in Phantom Menace or the sky paths of Bladerunner are not how it's done.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I spit up my coffee at the thought of Uber still being a thing 10 years from now.
FAA regulations alone is enough to ensure this won't happen.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
https://xkcd.com/678/
CEO's nowadays always make it sound like their visions are brand new, that no one's ever tried to invent this stuff before. But c'mon, if the VTOL car was even a remote possibility, it already would have been invented. But there's already a rich history of people who have tried, and either failed in inventing it, or succeeded but failed with commercializing it, both fixed-wing car varieties and VTOL varieties.
There's too many challenges:
1) Safety -- If a car breaks down / runs out of fuel while in use, it rolls to a stop. If a flying object breaks down / runs out of fuel in use, it crashes.
2) Price -- To reduce risk associated with problem #1, you can't cut corners or make things cheaply.
3) Lack of Infrastructure -- Cars, airplanes, and helicopters all have governed mediums by which and through which they can travel. A flying car does not. Nor will it fit perfectly within any of the existing mediums reserved for the existing vehicles.
4) Fuel consumption -- VTOL consumes a considerable amount of fuel for takeoff and landing.
5) Inefficiency with Tilt-Rotors -- Most current engineered VTOL aircraft use tilt-rotor systems (like the V22 Osprey. They work for VTOL, but inefficiently, as explained here, and their nature limits where they can take off and land.
Some engineers, like the makers of the Elytron, have come up with some neat hybrid fixed-wing/rotor solutions, but these aren't solutions that can be commercialized easily into flying cars like suggested in this article.
Personally, I'm getting pretty tired of "Backseat Visionaries" who tell everyone what the future is supposed to look like but don't do their part in driving us there.
Disclaimer: tldr
Requiem for the American Dream
Think about it. Rich flyers in Uber flyers, and an armed drone intercepts and requires they give up all their bitcoins or it explodes!
Ain't it wonderful!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
We do actually have small usable fusion reactors, they were developed at the UW. And then started military use.
What?
You didn't think we'd license it to you, did you?
They're really expensive, and our idea of small is the size of a walk-in closet, or a mudroom. But they're much smaller than fission reactors.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I really thought this was about Tesla when I first read it. Future productions are great, but I wonder how much of this is founded on a true timeline and how much is "We hope one day" talk.
No, VTOL is the technical term for a vehicle which can take off and land vertically.
Aside from the helicopters you so cleverly mentioned, the class includes jump-jets like the Harrier, tilt-rotors like the Osprey, rockets like the SpaceX Falcon-9 first stage and Blue Origin's New Shepard, as well as an assortment of experimental aircraft, including multi-rotor flying cars.
It appears Uber is so desperate to keep their market value at the stratospheric heights it has reached that they'll spew all sorts of ridiculous BS to stay in the news and appear to be innovative, hoping that the media will lap it up. Mission accomplished. Next week: Uber is working on a space plane, expecting commercial travel by 2019.
faa says they can't be a private pilot and cost of all of the safety stuff add's up fast.
Just wait for that flying jalopy to fall a part and crash with uber point to all kinds of fine print to get out of paying for the mess.
The Beamer Bad Boys Piloting their Flying BMW's like it was the Battle of Britain Dogfight all over again...
I've got enough helicopters flying over my house at all hours of the day and night. I don't need another bunch of entitled rich bastards doing it because it's gotten easier.
I really wish that the FAA didn't have the duties to both regulate air traffic, and promote air traffic. The second duty tends to have a lot of impact on the first to the detriment of anyone on the ground (to whom they have no duty).
And the worms ate into his brain.
> The vehicles would be able to travel at about 150 mph for up to 100 miles
Cruising at 150 mph is pretty energy expensive, even the tiny Moony M20 series needed the better part of its 200 hp to maintain a 150 mph cruise and most other aircraft using the same engine, say the Piper Arrow or (Rockwell) Commander 112 are generally closer to 120 mph cruise and maybe 140 full-throttle.
So if you convert that to electrical terms, 200 hp is 150 kW. To run that for 45 minutes (takeoff, cruise, land) you need 112.5 kW of battery, and with reserves and stores, at least 150 kW. The Tesla 85 kWh pack is 544 kg, so we're looking at something on the order of 960 kg, or a bit over a ton just for the battery. For comparison, a fully loaded Piper Arrow with four passengers, baggage and a load of fuel is 2,500 lbs.
Now that's assuming you're flying straight and level using wings, the efficient way to fly. This claims to be VTOL, which adds A HUGE AMOUNT.
So, yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.
Maybe you should pay your hosting bill?
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I saw a prototype yesterday, it's shaped like a pig, the techs even called it piggy, but unfortunately it didn't fly that day.
Nor any other day.