Flying cars are coming!

[DiscoMick]

Some interesting ideas here.
Will they work?
Will we accept them?
Will JLR make a flying Landy?
Can't imagine our Defender ever taking off.
Maybe it could be a small Evoque.


Japan wants flying cars in its skies in three years. Here's how they plan to pull it off
Japan wants flying cars in its skies in three years. Here'''s how they plan to pull it off - ABC News (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-29/flying-cars-could-be-a-reality-in-japan-in-three-years/12599544)

[PhilipA]

The man in charge of the company is Tomohiro Fukuzawa, who believes that within three years, people in Japan will be able hail a flying two-seater vehicle that can travel 5 kilometres.

A bit different to the headline.

It's like EVs IMHO. They are great in particular circumstances but widespread use is a fantasy.

At the TajMahal all the tuk tuks are electric presumably to protect the limestone structure from degradation.

But EVs are not popular in say Delhi ( one of the most polluted cities in the World), and even the compressed air powered TATAs seem to be scarce, although I did see some parked up and covered in dust.

I see several major problems with flying cars in Australia.

1 current rules are that AFAIK aircraft cannot fly under 600 ft in Australian Cities. This is of course related to safety from bitter experience of helicopter crashes in World cities.
2 aircraft must have 2 engines to do so.
3 who will provide traffic control?
4 where will they land . Again landing on buildings is generally forbidden in Australia.
5 maybe the range issue will be resolved but what if someone has to Hold pattern to land
6 Where will they be parked?
7 where will the electricity come from to charge them?
Range will be a big issue in an Australian city. Not much use between Campbelltown and the city which is probably the most beneficial time saving use.
Regards PhilipA

[JDNSW]

Flying cars have been 'coming' for at least 75 years. Haven't seen any about here yet!

I agree with most of Philip's objections, but you have to add to them the time, study and cost needed for a licence.

Mind you, I think autonomous flying cars are going to be about sooner than self driving cars - but they will be fully automatic, and will intelligently avoid each other and fixed objects (well, mostly), refusing to even depart until their route and timing has been approved, including the landing spot and diversion points. The problems with autonomous aircraft are a lot simpler than for cars (not as many pedestrians for a start!)

[DazzaTD5]

Well if they are designed and made by car manufacturers then it wont happen, just like autonomous cars used by the general public.

*Planes have redundancies in systems, like cranes and elevated work platforms (sort of, ok ok the cranes and elevated work platforms was a bad example) but planes do right?
*and when planes dont, they fall out of the sky, Boeing gave us examples of this not so long ago.

*Cars really are made to a generally pretty crap standard with a few exceptions.
*Image a autonomous car driving along or reverse parking and then it craps out and crashes (ok ok bad example, Tesla cars already do this)
*Image a flying car and mid flight it craps out, raining cats, dogs and dropping cars [bigrolf]

[scarry]

They will be here soon,just like flying pigs.

Lets just hope LR have absolutely nothing to do with them.[bighmmm][biggrin]

[DiscoMick]

There certainly are a lot of hurdles to overcome.
Charging them won't be a problem though. This country has plenty of electricity and huge potential for more.

[Homestar]

Will believe it when I see it. Flying cars have been ‘just a few years away’ as long as I can remember. Last year Uber said they would be testing in Australia within 6 months - that headline disappeared as quickly as it came.