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Where The Hell Are The Flying Cars? It's The 21st Century!

This is not a flying car, but it's got retrofuturistic concept stamped all over it:

Had a look at the website because it's not clear how the installation works. Turns out it's mechanical but you can do it yourself -

This demonstrator is operated by motor but buildings using this technology can be counterbalanced and operated manually, quickly and easily, in any location.

So that's some nasty accidents on the cards, then. I'm willing to put money on spontaneous finger-amputations at least. It'll be the trailer-tent incident all over again.*

Can see it now -

Wife: Which bit comes out first?
Husband: It'll be this. *pulls*
Wife: Are you sure? Where did you put the manual?
Husband: Stop panicking, it's easy, we don't need the manual, just common-sense, you lift this up and this bit drops down and ARRRGH! AAARRGGHH!
Wife: :meh:

*As personally witnessed by me on campsites over the years.
 
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One of the most wonderful futuristic images in The Fifth Element is a bouillon-looking cube that when placed in a microwave for 30 seconds emerges as a whole roasted chicken surrounded by sides. Are we there yet?
 
The instant bread from The Force Awakens is supposedly a real thing.
 
..where are the monorails ..

Same problem as any city has. You need to build in the rails (mono, or conventional Elevated (Ells) before you put in the building infrastructure.

Subways get around this to a large extent.

Monorails have a fatal flaw for most purposes, in that switches (UK, Points) between different lines are almost impossible. They are thus only suitable when there is a single line or a circuit. Around a theme park is fine, and along a narrow valley (Wuppertal) is workable. Most cities require a network and monorails cannot provide that.
 
Good point. That hadn't even occurred to me, but it now seems very obvious. I have many doubts about this Hyperloop business ...
 
I do not want idiots flying above me, it is bad enough when they are on the road, can you imagine a crash and being littered with cars and bodies, or, if some poor smuck survives the crash but the car is damaged as such that the fall kills him

Farmers would shoot down cars flying over their land.

Get Out Of My Sky!
 
Here's a story concerning a serious study of whether - and to what extent - 'flying cars' might justify themselves in relation to sustainability.
A Jetsons future? Assessing the role of flying cars in sustainable mobility

In the 1960s animated sitcom The Jetsons, George Jetson commutes to work in his family-size flying car, which miraculously transforms into a briefcase at the end of the trip.

A new study of the environmental sustainability impacts of flying cars, formally known as electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or VTOLs, finds that they wouldn't be suitable for a Jetsons-style short commute.

However, VTOLs -- which combine the convenience of vertical takeoff and landing like a helicopter with the efficient aerodynamic flight of an airplane -- could play a niche role in sustainable mobility for longer trips, according to the study, scheduled for publication April 9 in Nature Communications. Several companies around the world are developing VTOL prototypes. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190409135923.htm
 
A five-seater self-flying taxi. Powered by electric motors, the makers claim it has a range of 300km - that's a long extension lead!

Five seater self-flying air taxi unveiled
  • 3 hours ago


_106986871_lil_press-release_header2.png
Image copyrightLILIUMImage captionThe Lilium team in front of the new self-flying taxi
A German start-up has unveiled what it says is the world's first five seater self-flying taxi.
Lilium said the prototype had its first test flight earlier this month, in which it took off, hovered, then landed again.
It said the craft, which is electric powered, is capable of travelling up to 300km in just 60 minutes.
A number of other firms have tested self-flying taxis, but none seats more than two people.
etc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48297440
 
Going to get really crowded up there, above the cities; in the mist.

INT21.
 
Who wouldn’t want young Coolio, with his lead foot and ADHD, or half-blind old Mrs. Smith who spends five minutes deciding between two brands of adult nappies in Lidl, zooming above their house in a Bacofoil bag full of high-octane fuel?

maximus otter
 
Who wouldn’t want young Coolio, with his lead foot and ADHD, or half-blind old Mrs. Smith who spends five minutes deciding between two brands of adult nappies in Lidl, zooming above their house in a Bacofoil bag full of high-octane fuel?

maximus otter
That's the thing though isn't it .. the real reason why we aren't using flying cars and probably never will is because they're blatantly going to be crashing all the time on houses, schools, hospitals etc etc ..

There's enough crap drivers on the road without putting them in the air where they can be even more dangerous. Getting the insurance details off someone who's just crashed a car into your roof? .. unlikely. If they had to be green lit at all, I'd limit them to emergency service use only, self flying and operated by air traffic control and even then they'd be dodgy.
 
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Who wouldn’t want young Coolio, with his lead foot and ADHD, or half-blind old Mrs. Smith who spends five minutes deciding between two brands of adult nappies in Lidl, zooming above their house in a Bacofoil bag full of high-octane fuel?

maximus otter

The Uber one linked above is automatic/pilotless. According to the report the proposal is:

you book the taxi via app, a car turns up & takes you to the nearest vertiport, the air taxi takes you to the nearest vertiport to your destination, a car takes you from there to your destination.

So in theory there could be flight lanes connecting the vertiports..
 
And in south America, the power went out; every where.

Still think a world relying on electric is a good idea ?

Hunk,

So if you have to use a car to get you to the vertiport, and a car to get you from the vertiport, you appear to have the same problem you do with airports.

Why not just use the car all the way ? Or maybe rail.

INT21.
 
Hunk,

So if you have to use a car to get you to the vertiport, and a car to get you from the vertiport, you appear to have the same problem you do with airports.

Why not just use the car all the way ? Or maybe rail.

INT21.

Suppose you're a banker living in the home counties. You want to travel to central London, you don't want to mix with the plebs on overcrowded trains & you don't want a tedious drive which will take ages in traffic. That's what this service is aimed at, not your average Joe.

I was merely pointing out that it's not as max said "young Coolio or Mrs Smith" piloting it, not advocating it as a good idea without issues. Just that with the amount of companies working on it, it looks likely to happen.
 
Hunk,

It would indeed be a niche market. But fat cats already have access to helicopter taxi services.

It may happen, but not as the developers wish it to. As you suggest, too many problems.

INT21.
 
Hunk,

It would indeed be a niche market. But fat cats already have access to helicopter taxi services.

It may happen, but not as the developers wish it to. As you suggest, too many problems.

INT21.

Helicopter rides into town would be way more expensive than a pilotless air taxi & more for the Donald Trumps of this world. I don't know how many helipads there are in London but there can't be too many places a helicopter can land & you'd have to board one at an airfield or maybe your back garden if you've got one large enough.

There's plenty of land available on the outskirts for vertipads but as to where you'd put them centrally in London or other major cities I don't know..
 
There's plenty of land available on the outskirts for vertipads but as to where you'd put them centrally in London or other major cities I don't know..
On top of buildings.
 
Anyway, when 3D conference calling gets properly underway (5G, where are you ?) there will be no need for Fat Cat to leave his villa in Cromer.

INT21.
 
On top of buildings.

Maybe - if you can find a large enough building with a flat roof. Then there's quite a bit of infrastructure to be arranged, getting punters up & down to roof level, agreements to be arrived at with freeholders, etc.

Much less aggro to find an open space for it.
 
Autonomous 'intelligent' drone developments

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What is going to happen to the oil industry when all the non electric cars are gone ?
 
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