Really??
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
“Flying cars will be a reality by 2030, says Hyundai’s Europe chief”
(14 posts)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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There was flying car in Juni green the other night and William Gammon from Currie said it was the SfP even tho they are not in Juni Green
Posted 2 years ago # -
The implication in calling something a flying car is that it can be driven on the ground as well as flying above it. Hyundai's press release just seems to be different way of doing aircraft travel.
I've decided to imagine their artist's impression is of the view looking across the Tay to Dundee in 2030.
Posted 2 years ago # -
No, they won't.
Flying cars are still either George Jetson or a DeLorean with an early 21st century hover conversion. Even the Moller Skycar hasn't taken off (pun intended) and they've been trying that approach for nearly 50 years. Make flying cars light enough to fly and they are fragile enough that you must never hit anyone while in road car mode, and in flying mode you risk crashing to the ground. Apply carcentric maintenance habits and you risk crashing to the ground. Apply carcentric marketing so that everyone has one, and then the skyway gets jammed and people risk crashing into each other. People can't even fly drones properly all the time.
They'll need to be autonomous, unerringly airworthy and, ideally, circumvent the law of gravity.
Posted 2 years ago # -
"Flying car completes test flight between airports"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57651843
More of a driving aeroplane than a flying car.
Posted 2 years ago # -
And they’ll be electric too??
Posted 2 years ago # -
I can imagine they'd be useful in very small niches. If one had a private pilots licence and one had to travel between two fairly rural areas one could possibly fly between say Oban and the airstrip at Kirknewton and then drive into town missing out on some pretty slow, congested roads.
Of course you could do the same with a cheaper, more efficient, more reliable light aircraft and an uber but people.
Posted 2 years ago # -
My prediction is flying cars will destroy what is left of the quiet countryside. No more need to build roads over all that pesky idyllic greenery. I will start scoping out caves in the mountains soon :)
Posted 2 years ago # -
With the sea level rises caused by our inability to give up these machines, I'm sure there'll be a flying boat version for when Leith gets inundated...
Remember, we are more or less committed to the 23 metres of sea level rise that we last saw 4 million years ago, when CO2 was at today's levels
Some think we're going back even further - 15 million years, to the Miocene epoch - when temperatures were 8 to 9 degrees higher than today...
Posted 2 years ago # -
I reckon we'll see automous passenger carrying drones first...
https://cities-today.com/cities-progress-flying-taxi-plans/
Once you are airborne there is much fewer variables than in road transport.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I'm expecting that pigs will fly before we see the adoption of flying cars (probably as suitably sized/weighted test subjects).
Posted 2 years ago # -
These flying cars will be very wide and very long and single occupant
Posted 2 years ago # -
This seems like such an incredibly niche market that I am amazed that people keep pouring money into the development of these things (and have been since the 1930s). How many people a) have a pilots license (or want to pay to get one), b) have an airport handy at departure and destination points and c) are willing to put up with driving/flying around in a machine that is neither fish nor fowl.
Posted 2 years ago # -
@vladimpala, that's probably what they said about horseless carriages before the Model T came along.
The worry has to be that, like "autonomous vehicles" or electric cars, the industry momentum and desire to sell more and more products simply makes these things happen, regardless of the actual need for or practicality of said products.
If you want an example of industry inducing demand for products nobody realised they wanted, look at mobile phones.
Posted 2 years ago #
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