Is the World Ready For Flying Cars? (engadget.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report from TechCrunch, adding: "Is the world ready for flying cars? Sebastian Thrun, the supposed godfather of autonomous driving, and several other tech investors seem to think so." From the report: At TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017, Thrun talked a lot about flying cars and how that was the future of transportation. So did GGV's Jenny Lee, a prolific investor in China. And so did Steve Jurvetson, one of the original investors in SpaceX. The technical backbone for flying cars seems to be there already -- with drones becoming ever-present and advancements in AI and self-driving cars -- but the time is coming soon that flying cars will be the primary mode of transportation. "I can't envision a future of highways [and being] stuck in cars," Thrun said. "I envision a [future] where you hop in a thing, go in the air, and fly in a straight line. I envision a future where Amazon delivers my food in the air in five minutes. The air is so free of stuff and is so unused compared to the ground, it has to happen in my opinion."

Cars today are forced to move on a two-dimensional plane (ramps, clover intersections and tunnels set aside), and while self-driving cars would make it easier for cars to talk to each other and move more efficiently, adding a third dimension to travel would make a lot of sense coming next. Thrun pointed to airplane transit, which is already a "fundamentally great mass transit system." Jurvetson said he was actually about to ride in a flying car before he "watched it flip over" before arriving to talk about some of the next steps in technology onstage. So, there's work to be done there, but it does certainly seem that all eyes are on flying cars. And that'll be enabled by autonomous driving, which will probably allow flying cars to figure out the most efficient paths from one point to the next without crashing into each other. Lee said that China is closely analyzing changes in transportation, which might end up leading to flying cars. "I do want to highlight that there's going to be huge disruption within the transportation ecosystem in China," Lee said. "Cars going from diesel to electric. China has about 200 million install base of car ownership. In 2016, only 1 million cars are electric. The Chinese government hopes to install 5 million parking lots that are electric... Even the Chinese OEMs are buying into flying taxis."

Comments

Is the world ready for flying cars?

[TWX]

No.

Have you seen the way people drive in only two dimensions?

Re:Is the world ready for flying cars?

[hambone142]

Airplane maintenance is much more critical than automobile maintenance because of the potential for death and destruction should an airplane undergo mechanical failure. That maintenance would be very costly. Also with increased quantities of flying objects above us, the probability of crashes would greatly increase. Add to that a myriad of other things that could go wrong and my response is "NO", we are not ready for flying vehicles.

If it's so "possible", then why aren't all airplanes currently flying themselves? Yes, I understand what auto pilot is but I also understand what it is not. That is why we have air traffic controllers. Imagine what would happen if we had millions more objects flying above us.

I think I'd opt to live in a cave if that were to occur.

Re:Is the world ready for flying cars?

[mSparks43]

having just started flying helicopters. im fairly sure there will never be flying cars.

the reason is not technical, training, or even regulatory. its maintenance.

remember all the cars youve ever seen broken down at the side of the road. If they were flying cars they would all be coffins.

preemptive maintainance is what makes flying expensive. and no amount of automating piloting will change that. modern planes and helicopters basically already fly themselves.

Re:Is the world ready for flying cars?

[vtcodger]

"If they aren't limited by having humans controlling them, then it won't matter if they add a 3rd dimension."

I don't entirely disagree. But controlling stuff in three dimensions is not as easy as it sounds for all sorts of reasons. And there are a bunch of privacy, noise, and security issues. Plus a lot of problems like overhead wires. And wind. And handling poor visibility. And coordinating thousands of those suckers including the one right around the corner of the building on your left that you can't see and that can't see you and will be wanting to occupy the same space you plan to be occupying in three ... two ... one ... seconds.

I also agree with the comment that it may be more than 15 years before we have truly safe fully autonomous cars. Not that there won't be lots of driverless vehicles in specific applications such as long distance expressway transport before then. But a driverless car you can safely send your ten year old off to school in is a long way off.

Re:7 minute abs

[Kjella]

Even if we ignore all that and assume we got computers handling all the flying relative both to the environment and other flying cars and making sure it always in range it's a no-go because of:

1) Safety zones and noise
2) Catastrophic failure modes
3) Energy consumption