Flying car or Tesla?

Malthusian

Adyinvestment said:

I don't see how logistically anything that needs a runway will be successful.

In the same way a mode of transport that needs very long wide streets through the middle of the city in order to accommodate rush hour traffic could be successful.

Remember that those avenues will be redundant when cars can fly, so we can easily stick a safety barrier on one end and convert them to runways.

Likewise any long straight road that takes cars out of a city into the countryside could be converted into a runway. That will sort out the "early adopters" because the prospect of avoiding motorway traffic jams will be sufficient incentive to buy cars that fly, even when you can only use flight for intercity travel because it's not yet viable to convert intracity roads to runways.

I've got a vision in my head of someone in the 18th century saying "vaccines will never work, it's a nice idea but I don't see how anything that needs you to be stabbed in the arm will be successful". Between the problems of "how can we get hundreds of cars to share airspace safely" and "where do we put the runways", the second problem is not the big one here. As with "how can we culture a virus into a form that will give us antibodies without the risk of severe illness or death" and "how do we persuade people to get stabbed in the arm".

"I'm running the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon next week." "You must be insane, there's no direct flight from Bristol, it'll be a nightmare."

Adyinvestment

Malthusian said:

Adyinvestment said:

I don't see how logistically anything that needs a runway will be successful.

In the same way a mode of transport that needs very long wide streets through the middle of the city in order to accommodate rush hour traffic could be successful.

Remember that those avenues will be redundant when cars can fly, so we can easily stick a safety barrier on one end and convert them to runways.

Likewise any long straight road that takes cars out of a city into the countryside could be converted into a runway. That will sort out the "early adopters" because the prospect of avoiding motorway traffic jams will be sufficient incentive to buy cars that fly, even when you can only use flight for intercity travel because it's not yet viable to convert intracity roads to runways.

I would say that way before anything like this became reality a competitor will have come a long with a vehicle that can take off vertically and that will be the end of the companies with runway cars.

csgohan4

Adyinvestment said:

I don't see how logistically anything that needs a runway will be successful. If this form of travel were to become mainstream it would have to take off vertically.


And anything Morgan Stanley say should be taken with a pinch of salt, their PR department must be huge with all the garbage click bait they spew out!

Baring in mind they invested alot in a Junk company imo, EVFM, I would take what Morgan Stanley invests in with a pinch of salt

Old_Lifer

The idea of a flying car isn't new.   If I remember correctly,  I think the US Army developed one in the 1950's  but dropped the idea as it wasn't practical on a modern battlefield.

A light aircraft doesn't necessarily need a long runway.   The  Fieseler Storch light observation plane widely used by the Germans in WW2  was often said to be  capable of  taking off and landing on a tennis court.   It was used in 1943 to rescue  the Italian Dictator who was imprisoned in an hotel at the top of a mountain.

Zanderman

Considering how many accidents people have when all they have to do is follow the road, imagine how chaotic it would be if they could just fly randomly in any direction and at any height. 

Rush hour in a busy town with everyone flying in their own vehicles?  Utter chaos.  Far too dangerous. 

And you've still gotta park them.  

And that's not even thinking about the privacy issues.  For drones there are already restrictions on flying over private property.  Imagine the complexity if everyone was flying cars.    

It's an interesting idea but I really do doubt it'll ever get off the ground...

Thrugelmir

Probably why it's being mooted as a potential "air taxi".  Be a highly regulated operation that could provide a useful service. Far cheaper than operating a helicopter.