Flying cars: why??

[JeffL]

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/124737-first-flying-plane-completes-test-flight-on-target-for-commercial-availability-in-2012?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=first-flying-plane-completes-test-flight-on-target-for-commercial-availability-in-2012

So - why is this a good idea? You always see these flying car stories, but I'm not sure what the point is.

Obviously, we don't want a world with flying cars in traffic. If you've ever driven in Chicago traffic, for example, the LAST thing you want is rush hour with 4 levels.

Seriously though - why? Is it an advantage to be able to drive to the small airport just out of town and then take off from there? Land when you see a Sonic drive through below you?

[Jason McCullough]

It's just a pipe dream where people think they'll be able to go faster and avoid traffic.

[magnet]

You always see these flying car stories, but I'm not sure what the point is.

Because when it's cold outside people don't want to ride their jetpacks.

[AaronSofaer]

Because when it's cold outside people don't want to ride their jetpacks.

This is a post that makes me wish Qt3 had a "like" button.

[Stepsongrapes]

To be the first guy with a flying car.

Seriously, early technology sucks. A horse probably beat the earliest cars and trains by a longshot. At some point, it gets better.

Initially, it probably has a pretty niche role in allowing you to be less depedendent on infrastructure in sparsely populated areas. For example, it might be relatively useful in Alaska, where they fly around a lot anyways.

[Brian Rubin]

Obviously, we don't want a world with flying cars in traffic. If you've ever driven in Chicago traffic, for example, the LAST thing you want is rush hour with 4 levels.
Hahahaha, having just been to Chicago for the first time this past weekend, this cracks me up.

[RichVR]

I aspire to be the first guy with a flying car that gets pulled over/down for drinking and flying.

Officer: You killed that seagull.
Me: I didn't even see it, I was changing the channel on my radio.
Officer: That's the point sir, you were flying without checking your birdside.
Me: oops.
Officer: Have you been drinking?
Me: No.
::officer gives me a breathalyzer::
Officer: You're under arrest for flying while blind drunk.
Me: You mean?
Officer: Yes. Flying while blind!

[Miramon]

This will never be a good idea until we have antigravity or somesuch silly thing, along with robots that are better pilots than we are. It's presumably an inferior plane coupled with a grossly inferior automobile that will be too expensive for anyone but a rich idiot to afford to operate, much less to buy. Even isolated Alaskan petro-engineers with unlimited spending authority will prefer to fly conventional planes.

[markv]

http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2011/03/chitty-chitty-bang-bang-1.jpg

It's also a boat too! Forget the new flying cars, old is where it's at.

[Alistair]

There was one of those in the 60s in the UK I think, which was literally a mini with strap on wings. For some reason it didn't catch on.

[Razgon]

Isn't there some guy who claims he's making a flying car, and has some videos of it? I never can remember what the site or car is called.

Edit: yes, here it is - Moller International (http://www.moller.com/)

[Oghier]

The solution to traffic will be the driverless cars Google and others are testing.

Flying cars are the solution to... the Jetsons?

[dwinn]

Avery Brooks demands flying cars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzm6pvHPSGo)

[Gordon Cameron]

Flying cars are the solution to... the Jetsons?

What fun would it be if inventors only came up with solutions to existing problems? The telephone wasn't a solution to anything when it was created, since by definition everyone had gotten along fine for the previous 100,000 years without one. But I think we are all glad Bell and the others took the trouble.

That said, yes, I think flying cars have simply stuck in the popular imagination (via Jetsons, Blade Runner, etc.) as one of those symbols of the futuristic society we all thought we'd be living in my now. Along with moon colonies, domestic robots, etc.

[Dan_Theman]

To be fair to the concept and apart from any benefits in actual transportation, the complete shift to flying cars would free up a significant amount of land reserved for roads. I recall someone once quoting me that all the roads in the U.S. combined would be about the size of the state of Nevada, and that's just the paved parts. Of course, there would still be some need for roads for pedestrians, bicycles, possibly mass transit, etc., but they wouldn't have to be so dominant.

[Lunch of Kong]

Flying cars = burning debris and bodies falling into your homes at least at the same rate that you see broken down vehicles and wrecks on the road.

[JeffL]

Hovering capability will be required if these ever became the norm, as you'd just have traffic jams above traffic jams. ;)

[jason]

Hoverboard first, then flying car. Stop trying to make flying cars (which are really just small planes/helicopters that drive on the street) and focus on real technological advancement!

[Woolen Horde]

I've seen how a a scary percentage of people drive. No motherfucking way I'd want them operating an aircraft. Bad enough their stupidity is on the roads. Give them wings and their stupidity is no longer contained.

This just happened yesterday
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/tagblogsfindlawcom2012-injured-idUS345970898620120404

Now imagine that happening dozens of times per day.

[Houngan]

Hoverboard first, then flying car. Stop trying to make flying cars (which are really just small planes/helicopters that drive on the street) and focus on real technological advancement!

Oh hey guys, what's happening in . . . BAM!

http://www.ksat.com/lifestyle/-The-Future-is-now-Hoverboards-arrive-3-years-early/-/477938/9630946/-/be1u24z/-/

Hoverboard, bitches.

[asspennies]

I thought Osama Bin Ladin kind of ended the dream of the flying car. Once you realize that flying cars full of cheap fertilizer-based explosives are cheaper and more destructive than a missile program I would think you table those flying cars you have on your drawing board.

[Huzurdaddi]

It's just a pipe dream where people think they'll be able to go faster and avoid traffic.

All we are going to need for that is driverless cars. And hooray it is coming.

[jason]

That would be awesome if it actually hovered... instead is uses the equivalent of those pads you put on your furniture to slide them around easier. So it's more of a slideboard than a hoverboard.

Nice try though...

[Enidigm]

Flying cars have huge issues with aerodynamics, horsepower and range. They're "lake house" toys for the dangerously rich to fly into town with. There is absolutely no way the majority of cars could fly (with current tech) and not end in tears, burning pyres, and piles of bodies.

There are only a few situations where a flying car would be useful. Places where they would be great, off paved roads, are impossible. The car part of the flying car is this super fragile pavement only monstrosity whose main selling points are that it has wheels and can move.

[asspennies]

All we are going to need for that is driverless cars. And hooray it is coming.

Yeah, I'm sure it will all be completely easy and simple, and work like this:

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/traffic-control-in-a-world-of-driverless-cars/23650

Until you realize that like anything else, cars are susceptible to mechanical and technical problems and these sort of "just-miss" calculations, while great in theory, are disastrous in practice.

[Giaddon]

The solution to traffic will be the driverless cars Google and others are testing.

Huh? Maybe the solution to traffic accidents... but traffic (road congestion) is largely an infrastructure problem. Doesn't matter who's driving the cars.

[Stepsongrapes]

Huh? Maybe the solution to traffic accidents... but traffic (road congestion) is largely an infrastructure problem. Doesn't matter who's driving the cars.

I don't think that's 100% true.

Human inefficiencies certainly contribute to congestion. Large-scale automation of cars would greatly increase road capacity utilization. I agree that it can't make all congestion go away, but it can certainly improve over existing congestion.

[WarrenM]

Plus, if computers are driving that means they can be communicating with each other, evenly distributing traffic along various roads ,and getting everyone where they need to go with appropriate amounts of efficiency. Sign me the hell up!

Hell, if cars are automated you can do away with stop lights and stop signs since the computers would be able to time everything precisely and mesh the traffic together correctly. Can't wait...

[jason]

.. and all travel time becomes socializing, reading, gaming or napping time.

[Enidigm]

.. and all travel time becomes socializing, reading, gaming or napping time.

This is a euphamism for sex, right?

[Pogue Mahone]

You people absolutely amaze me. The answer to "Why flying cars?" is because flying fucking cars. Good day, sirs.

[Marcus]

The roadable aircraft, incidentally, has a 23-gallon fuel tank, and consumes roughly five gallons per hour of flight (at a cruising speed of 93 knots/105mph), and has a highway efficiency of 35 mpg

That is the best part.

[Dawn Falcon]

.. and all travel time becomes socializing, reading, gaming or napping time.

Your employer doesn't think so!

( :( )

[Sarkus]

The big advantage of flying cars would be a better use of space in areas where things are tight. Would you rather have a four lane road through an area or have a pedestrian walkway with vehicles flying above?

Of course the whole idea needs work and flying cars would basically be computer flown anyway, so we're some way off, if ever, from seeing them.

But this is the kind of thing that isn't necessarily about achieving the goal, its about what it generates in getting there.

[tronnc]

Flying cars seem like such an outdated idea now. Maybe in the 60s it would have been cool but now it just feels like a backwards outdated idea, just imagine how inefficient energy wise they would be as well as a major safety/security risk. Also how would you efficiently park/land, imagine the crowded walmart parking lots somehow designed to safely handle large numbers of incoming/outgoing flying vehicles.

Computer driver cars are the way of the future, once most vehicles are switched over traffic jams will probably be handled much more smoothly and besides you're not a slave to the car while it's driving and will probably be able to watch youtube videos or play video games on your daily commute.

[Eric Majkut]

Yeah I'm totally down with the Minority Report approach. I want my car to come up the side of my apartment building, dock with the balcony, let me onboard and then let me read the paper and check email on my way to work.