• Epzillon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    8 hours ago

    Apart from all the discussion regarding how stupid this is, how the fuck would this even fit on a road? I doubt the wings would be durable enough if they were retractable. This shit would take up 2 lanes and fuck up any and all intersections. And as a added bonus, it would fuck with everyone elses perception who are used to the distances you keep away from regular vehicles when theyre turning in front of you. This shitheap wouldnt even make it to the airport because someone will probably misjudge the turn radius with the wings and fuck it up on the way there.

    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      7 hours ago

      They fold to the rear. So apparently they are - at least supposed to be - durable enough.

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    14 hours ago

    The vehicle, certified for airworthiness and flight-tested over 170 hours with more than 500 takeoffs and landings, is now headed for mass production.

    Jesus fuck please tell me that’s a typo and they left some zeros off. Your average commercial pilot has more than that before any airline is even willing to consider hiring them, that is absolutely not sufficient testing.

    Still, early adopters may face bureaucratic turbulence. Potential buyers must be both licensed drivers and certified pilots.

    No shit. And that is never going to change, becoming a certified pilot is a lot fuckin harder than getting a driver’s license, and for very good reasons. If some BMW-driving cunt can’t even be arsed to use his turn signal do you really want to ease the “bureaucratic turbulence” just so he can fuck up and crash into a packed airliner? These things still have to use runways, the people flying them still need to know how to behave themselves at airports, how to identify and avoid restricted airspace, how to communicate with ATC and how to behave if (let’s be honest, when) they get Intercepted.

    And all of this so you can have a car that’s worse at being a car, and an airplane that’s worse at being an airplane, but hey at least you won’t have to book a rental car at your destination airport, which I remind you they still have to use.

    • ChillPenguin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 hours ago

      As long as they’re only using smaller airports. Let the millionaires and billionaires have this. It’s like another ocean gate scenario.

      I agree with everything you’re saying though haha.

    • Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 hours ago

      I still don’t get how these companies keep getting funded. There’s literally no way these things will ever become a thing. It’s simply ridiculous.

      • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        9 hours ago

        I’d be willing to bet if you put a calendar reminder in one year to check back on this you’d find that this car did not actually reach the mass-produced stage of industry.

      • Red_October@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Investors and venture capitalists fronting money and riding the Hype-Go-Round, but when the music stops and the lights go out someone’s going to be out a shitload of money.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    17 hours ago

    So it’s a small plane then?

    I swear I saw this on TV like 20 years ago, it’s a stupid idea, if I wanted a plane I would buy a plane and then drive to the airport in my car, attempting to combine the two technologies just makes both of them worse.

  • Fleur_@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    17 hours ago

    Oh just like they did 5yrs ago every 5 years since the invention of powered flight

  • HakunaHafada@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    24 hours ago

    I feel like “mass-produced” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Also, insurance is going to be insane.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      17 hours ago

      I don’t think I’ve ever seen an intercity tram before. They tend to be strictly local affairs. Probably because local governments have to lay the lines, and there would be some kind of giant argument if it went across jurisdictions.

    • tonyn@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 day ago

      A million doesn’t get you what it used to, and you’d be shocked at how many quiet millionaires there are out there.

      • will@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        33
        ·
        1 day ago

        There might be a lot more millionaires than before, but it’d still be a much smaller number who could drop $1M on a flying car.

        • tonyn@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 day ago

          It’s cheaper than a private jet and there are LOADS of them buzzing around polluting the skies.

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 day ago

              I’m still of an opinion that private aircraft is for sports and for farmers and for doctors\firefighters\rescuers in remote areas like rural Siberia. And, of course, for people wiping their ass with money.

              It’s unfortunately not the same as having a spaceship in some sci-fi universe. The word “ship” hints why, the legal infrastructure, the expenses and most of all required qualifications make flying a plane more demanding.

              I don’t see how making a weird car-like plane changes that.

              • jqubed@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 day ago

                This looks to me like yet another in a surprisingly long line of airplanes that are also designed to be driven on roads in someway, but they’re basically all noticeably worse at either task than vehicles designed specifically for one of those tasks. It also invariably ends up more expensive than two specialized vehicles, so there’s never really any reason to build these.

          • TheLemming@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 day ago

            That may be true, but private jets are significantly more practical than this. If you’ve got private jet money, you can just afford to buy a jet and a decent car at your destination.

          • Eager Eagle@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            1 day ago

            With the range of a cessna skyhawk ($400k-$500k aircraft), no way it’ll replace a private jet.

      • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        I mean you can get a licence for 20-30k, the maintenance is deadly on a plane though, you could buy a very nice car each year on that money.