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Thatingles t1_j1wg875 wrote

The piloting is only one aspect. A flying car is a small helicopter, and downdraft is a thing. You can't get around the need for thrust of some kind, so you can only have a flying car if you have a place to land it, or your neighbours don't have a problem with seeing everything get blown over every time you take off or land.

There is also the problem of fuel costs, but that is another thing. The main issue is that if you want to keep something weighing 1000kg in the air you need a lot of thrust, and if that is pointed at the ground it causes havoc.

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mrgulabull t1_j1wq3sd wrote

On top of the air turbulence caused by thrusters, the noise would carry great distances. Recreational drones are already pretty obnoxious and they weigh several orders of magnitude less than a personal aircraft.

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7HawksAnd t1_j1xdlma wrote

So we’re saying hot air balloons are really the future!

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bbpsword t1_j1y3m8r wrote

Trains, brother. High speed trains.

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Phssthp0kThePak t1_j1y680i wrote

To where? The 7-11?

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icest0 t1_j1ycgjz wrote

how about 7-11 on a train, also the train is in the air? damn that's future.

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Less-Mail4256 t1_j1xufht wrote

Flying cars just aren’t practical in any way. It’s one of those science fiction ideas that has no relevant place in reality.

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Ok_Dog_4059 t1_j1xi7xg wrote

Think about that plane going to Hawaii a week or so ago that hit turbulence. Even if AI could pilot it the ride would suck. AI can't really do anything about lack of maintenance or random break downs either so dead motors or electrical fires would be almost always fatal.

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DallaThaun t1_j1xx8s6 wrote

AI can't do something about that but if automated aircraft are commercialized they will have multiple levels of redundancy. The role of "AI" in such a scenario would be to switch to a backup string, alert everyone, maybe search for an emergency landing site, etc.

Additionally, engine failure or electrical fires are certainly disasters but are not "almost always fatal" especially if nobody is on board. You'd be surprised. That should not change with an unmanned aircraft...or else it is not yet ready for commercial flight.

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Words_Are_Hrad t1_j1ygsro wrote

Lmao you know what keeps other aircraft from falling out of the sky? Several hours of maintenance for every hour it is in the air. Completely impractical for mass transit...

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DallaThaun t1_j1ygvis wrote

Why do you think that automated aircraft would not be maintained? Of course they would, same as now.

Of course it will never be used for individual mass transport like OP is asking. Was not saying it would.

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civilrunner t1_j1wmbsz wrote

Yeah, even if we got ion propulsion to be advanced enough it would still have thrust. It's not likely we'll have flying cars like in star wars, though perhaps we could stimulate it with stacked high temperature super conductor infrastructure combined with fusion energy for levitating vehicles but that's really just like a bunch of stacked mag lev's and not actually flying cars. By that point cars will have long been autonomous, and more like on demand Transit vehicles compared to today's cars.

Edit: I think what's more likely is for relatively low cost miniaturized fusion powered high speed orbital trans continent travel between hubs. Within a hub mass transit and autonomous vehicles will still be the solution.

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edvorg t1_j1y0ut0 wrote

Also noise, imagine there are thousands of helicopters flying around your city? I'd leave it immediately

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EC_CO t1_j1xfqh6 wrote

Until we get magnetic levitation going on, I 100% agree with the thrust and backwash problems. However I do disagree about the fuel thing, there's already battery electric full size personal flying vehicles developed. And by the time that AI is ready to do the self-driving, battery technology will be so much further advanced it shouldn't be a thought

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Mellero47 t1_j1yx7km wrote

Not magnetic levitation, anti-gravity levitation is what we'd need. Some way to nullify it, so a car can be "floated" the same as a submarine in water.

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EC_CO t1_j1z1j3c wrote

100% correct, this is the right phrasing I was looking for

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starcrescendo t1_j1xm3hd wrote

We just have to get to mars and unearth the protean ruins about the Mass Effect drives

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Daemarcus t1_j1z7h4v wrote

Also maintenance If it's not done, parts will fall to the ground....

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A-Real-Jedi t1_j1xhmyg wrote

Oh yea?? What happens when they reverse engineer the anti-gravity machines, with no propulsion system, that the aliens crashed in, that Bob Lazaar spoke about on the Joe Rogan show, and Joe Rogan and his psychedelics believes him Mr. Smarty pants?!?!? If Joe Rogan says it be true, it be true. Geesh.

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Bossbong t1_j1xyo70 wrote

Why does it have to be a helicopter? What if we find a way to send a negatively charged magnetic field or something. I've been thinking about magnet based transportation for a while. Ik that's not exactly how it would work but that's the basis of my theories.

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