Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mainiac]

Their behavior sounds very strange.  They are angry about his eyepiece but they take the time to stop and read the doctors note?

[Kogan Loloklam]

I got the acronym! TADPOLE!
Terrible Automobile Drivers Policing Other Like Entities.

You gitiin froggy with me son?

I like it.

[Sprin]

My two cents on flying cars...
If we actuly put forth ANY amount of effort we would have then, we basicly have trains like that now and (unless we get robots to do all our work and america goes from capitolism to comunism for lak of a point in curency if robots do all work) wont happen because tire companys will go out of bussness and we have an economec colapce.

[lemon10]

My two cents on flying cars...
If we actuly put forth ANY amount of effort we would have then, we basicly have trains like that now and (unless we get robots to do all our work and america goes from capitolism to comunism for lak of a point in curency if robots do all work) wont happen because tire companys will go out of bussness and we have an economec colapce.

Flying cars are actually *really* hard, and require a energy revolution before they become possible except maybe for the super-rich, and would probably require high level computing to make it easier then piloting a plane.
People have tried very hard, but its simply not doable with our current tech level, and will probably never be possible (well unless we have a technological singularity or something). Personal helicopters maybe, but everyone having flying cars is very unlikely.

[MaximumZero]

The biggest problem with flying cars, IMHO, is the public. Look out at the road when there's a little bit of traffic. Do you really want those assholes/idiots to be able to kill themselves (and us) in three dimensions?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

But that's just it. Even with how dangerous cars are, most people don't get killed by them.

Also, this is what autonomous vehicles could help with.

[MaximumZero]

I wonder if I can get a license to pilot my own autonomous car. I'm a pretty good driver.

[Eagleon]

Flying cars are actually *really* hard, and require a energy revolution before they become possible except maybe for the super-rich, and would probably require high level computing to make it easier then piloting a plane.
People have tried very hard, but its simply not doable with our current tech level, and will probably never be possible (well unless we have a technological singularity or something). Personal helicopters maybe, but everyone having flying cars is very unlikely.

Actually the only problem really is energy. Better, cheaper materials are also important - the composites we have for aircraft now are always going to be expensive to make, even if demand skyrocketed. The computers we have now (or ten years ago) could easily pilot all of our aircraft, even accounting for adverse weather and mechanical failure, but the FAA is notoriously slow to approve new technology for regular use - for better or worse. Consider the fact that there's a comparatively enormous amount of space for aircraft to maneuver around each other. The slowest, most thorough pathfinding algorithms we have would find air traffic control patterns to be child's play, since they only need to go through it once, and that's practically the only place where collisions can occur. Avoiding collisions elsewhere is a matter of coordinating and then plotting a course on the scale of miles to prevent the tiny fraction of a percent of a chance for two aircraft being in the same three dimensional coordinates at the same time. Personal flying cars would condense this, but not really by much for the commutes they would be practical for.

We'll probably have ubiquitous self-driving cars by the time we finally get to the point where we're willing to consider aircraft, and by then I think that if it's possible at all, superconductors will probably have been brought up to high enough temperatures to make hover cars, which are way cooler IMHO.

[LordBucket]

Flying cars are actually *really* hard, and require a energy revolution before they become possible except maybe for the super-rich, and would probably require high level computing to make it easier then piloting a plane.
People have tried very hard, but its simply not doable with our current tech level, and will probably never be possible (well unless we have a technological singularity or something). Personal helicopters maybe, but everyone having flying cars is very unlikely.

Here is the Parajet Skycar

They cost £55,000 and the company is accepting orders now

It is considered a powered parachute / ultralight, and requires a relevant license that typically takes 1-2 weeks to get.


Here is the Terrafugia Fusion

Purchase price is $279,000

First shipments are expected this year

You do however, have to have at least a Sport Pilot's license to fly one legally.


Here is the Pal-V One three-wheel roadable gyrocopter

It is, unfortunately, still in development with no scheduled date of commercial availability, but is estimated to become available for $300,000.


It can be done. It has been done. At one time, automobiles and cell phones were toys for the rich, too. You might start seeing these things on the road and in the air within a year or two. In 5-10 years they might be common.

[Levi]

Old news, but: http://tinyurl.com/1st-Cyborg-Hatecrime

Man that is bizarre.  I wouldn't have expected people to get so angry about something like that.

[kaijyuu]

Well it's a one sided anecdote. Their behavior is VERY strange if that's a 100% accurate, complete account. Enough to be suspicious.

My guess is that it was a rather mundane brawl. People get into arguments over petty stuff and resort to blows all the time. The eyepiece was just an easy target for them.

Of course, that doesn't preclude the assaulters being... anti-transhumanists, I guess is the term? I would not be surprised if the eyepiece was a catalyst for a dispute. I just doubt the guy was a perfect, passive gentlemen to them before they attacked him.

[lemon10]

Flying cars are actually *really* hard, and require a energy revolution before they become possible except maybe for the super-rich, and would probably require high level computing to make it easier then piloting a plane.
People have tried very hard, but its simply not doable with our current tech level, and will probably never be possible (well unless we have a technological singularity or something). Personal helicopters maybe, but everyone having flying cars is very unlikely.

Here is the Parajet Skycar

They cost £55,000 and the company is accepting orders now

It is considered a powered parachute / ultralight, and requires a relevant license that typically takes 1-2 weeks to get.


Here is the Terrafugia Fusion

Purchase price is $279,000

First shipments are expected this year

You do however, have to have at least a Sport Pilot's license to fly one legally.


Here is the Pal-V One three-wheel roadable gyrocopter

It is, unfortunately, still in development with no scheduled date of commercial availability, but is estimated to become available for $300,000.


It can be done. It has been done. At one time, automobiles and cell phones were toys for the rich, too. You might start seeing these things on the road and in the air within a year or two. In 5-10 years they might be common.

These aren't flying cars.
One is a glider, and you can't just switch between flying and on the ground without taking off the parachute first. the other is a plane that also has limited car abilities that would be a menace on a road. and one is a helicopter/car, that probably wouldn't work very well as a car either.

They are basically already workable aviation methods that have cars strapped on to them.

Furthermore, these wouldn't work at a large scale, fuel is a concern, as well as the problems with accidents (avoidable to some extent with computer systems, but as long as you are giving the drivers any control, they *will* end up crashing them sometimes, and considerably more then cars crash today). There is a reason that pilots licenses are so much harder to get then car licenses, and having flying cars would only cause a whole lot of problems in that regard.
I don't think the traffic problem with a million of these flying about new york city would be easy either, and unless they were restricted to pre-controlled lanes or entirely controlled by computers, would result in a lot of crashes.
It would also be a nightmare with security (it would be extremely easy to get a flying car loaded with bombs and fly it into the whitehouse, or over the border, or into a generic building), and I know the big governments would have some real problems with them even if they did become suddenly easily accessible and cheap.

EDIT: The flying helicopter one looks pretty road accessible though.
But they are all expensive (except the first one, which is basically a car glider), and aren't affordable unless you are pretty much a millionaire.

[MrWiggles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep4L18zOEYI&feature=g-vrec

This is truly badass. They want to replace the road network with solar panels.

[miauw62]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep4L18zOEYI&feature=g-vrec

This is truly badass. They want to replace the road network with solar panels.

Make lights light up under car wheels and i'm sold.

[Loud Whispers]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep4L18zOEYI&feature=g-vrec

This is truly badass. They want to replace the road network with solar panels.

What, no magnet emergency breaks? D: