Driving in the future

I'm sorry but I suspect flying cars will require a version of a pilots license.  The skills required. Likely would require clearance (to change altitude and well as direction)  

 perhaps that could be cleared in advance if it's handled by computers instead of people.  
      I suspect the result will be less flying cars sold so per unit costs would be higher. 
         Batteries to power flying cars/ automobiles/ trucks,  etc. will continue to improve both charging rate and durability. 
    
Robots will come down in costs and increase in abilities.  They probably will start out as no  contact charging ( maybe with pads on their feet? ). So as they step on your entrance mat they are charged on your electricity.  
  They would do domestic chores such as cleaning dusting washing, make beds, mow lawn,  trim hedges, make meals. Then on to the next house. 
    
 So what are your thoughts?   

frenchyd said:

 So what are your thoughts?   

Honestly? I have no idea what I just read.

frenchyd said:

I'm sorry but I suspect flying cars will require a version of a pilots license.

Why? Aviation is far closer to practical autonomous operation than automotive. If they ever become viable, they'll be autonomous with additional back-up 'drone' operation from a  remote location.

https://wisk.aero/

There will be no humans driving in the future.  Without saying it in so many words, we are already being told by the electronic nannies in our cars that humans are not good at driving. So please step aside.

There will be a horrific period where both humans and self-driving cars co-exist, but the future requires that transportation modules communicate between themselves to make  non-objective decisions at the rate of  millions of times per second; that means no room for humans.

If there is a positive side, it might be that  there is a demand for "driving reserves" where people go to experience what driving a car was all about either in a scenic or racing environment.

I for one, welcome the new digital overlords. Driving on roads today sucks most of the time unless you are doing something illegal.

There is no way I want big brother to be controlling my ability to get in my car and let me go some place. And effectively having autonomous vehicles is giving that up. It also allows for complete tracking of the movements of everyone. That is a world I don't want to live in. Putting the control of the public's freedom of travel in the hands of big brother is a extremely bad idea.  
 

dean1484 said:

 It also allows for complete tracking of the movements of everyone. That is a world I don't want to live in. ...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news ... but we already live in that world. Too late.

Flying cars, if those ever happen, as noted, will almost certainly be self-flying and work on well defined airways.

Most all commercial flight is essentially like that already.  They use well established airways (a very busy example shown below, based on VOR's but GPS is certainly primary at this point) and spend almost all their time on autopilot, even for landings sometimes.  The flight crew on airliners currently are primally there for emergency and unplanned situations (and talking to air traffic control).

Back when French was flying, he probably used to fly between light beacons (I kid).   

If cars start to fly then the budget for the roads won't be needed as much.  Where will that money go? Less taxes?  Airfare tax on your flying car?

Here is my conspiracy theory, in a few different directions. 

Everything EV is AV (autonomous vehicle) capable or not far from it today, many OEMs are making these two features in tandem so what will happen is that cars like this will be expensive and therefore owned by people who have money and since it drives itself it will bring the return of stage coach robberies. You can easily defeat an AV by boxing it in with 'manual cars' or even a simple traffic cone can put on in perma-park in the right situation. Then people will just rob them, cover up the cameras and the vehicle will be inop. 

The flip side is that we will get so lost in legislation that they will determine based on data skewed in their arguments favor that driving your own vehicle is too dangerous and at risk to so many others lives that they will make it illegal for you to drive your own car and then only then have all vehicles on the road as AV will allow them to work as intended. 

the benefit of this is only in the sense that vehicles can be traveling so much faster and in unison that highways will become super highways making rail nearly obsolete for the commuter. Can't have johnny carburetor out there driving anyway he wants because the electric robot vehicles will be whizzing past at 100mph flawlessly. 

even right now everything is so electric in vehicles its not much of a gap left of taking the idiot behind the wheel out of the equation. you think you operate the gas pedal? its a switch and it tells the computer details which functions the throttle on its own. the list goes on...

I think the EV push in the home/garden space is nice. Unfortunately leaf blowers are still loud but the mowers are a bit quiter. not silent but quieter for sure. Silent would be awesome. We all have that neighbor who is vacuuming their lawn or leaf blowing every. single. leaf. dirt. possible... all day long

also I would love a small EV snowmobile, all the fun for the small property and hootin. let it charge a while and do some rips. nothing I'm going to take on an expedition but some silent hooning around in the snow to not bother the neighbors would be a blast. 

aircooled said:

Flying cars, if those ever happen, as noted, will almost certainly be self-flying and work on well defined airways.

Most all commercial flight is essentially like that already.  They use well established airways (a very busy example shown below, based on VOR's but GPS is certainly primary at this point) and spend almost all their time on autopilot, even for landings sometimes.  The flight crew on airliners currently are primally there for emergency and unplanned situations (and talking to air traffic control).

Back when French was flying, he probably used to fly between light beacons (I kid).   

 

Since most of my flight time was at sea,   We had no light beacons.   ;-) During Em Com Times it was pure dead reckoning.     
 Realize we could be assigned an area 400 miles away from the ship. So what we'd do is keep careful track of the wind at our altitude.  Note the direction of the waves in relationship to north.  Then guess at wind speed. Based on the height of the waves.   
    When our time on station was up we'd do our calculations  and then get as  high as the clouds allowed us visibility and start looking.   Luckily a carrier group is a big thing in the ocean  plus the wake it kicks up can be detected for A long time.   
    That plus we had a sniffer that could pick up the smell of those oil burners a long way away.  ( over 20 miles in the right condition).  
     The hard part was if the clouds were really right down on deck.  And the fuel state was "land right now"

     Then landing got dicey,  we were always able to   Eventually pick up the wake.   But not always able to do it and be high enough to do a proper approach.  

EV snowmobiles really sound fun.  My dad used to really love those.  He always had to have the fastest one made. He and Mom would hop on them and zip all over from bar to bar. Across lakes, fields farmers who didn't care, or on the shoulders of roads where farmers did care. 
  The miracle was as drunk as they'd get, I guess the brutal cold sobered them up enough  because he never ran into a tree, or through a barbed wire fence. ( which does a neat, bloody  job of separating head from body).  
    But keep self driving away.  

I'm all for battery powered flying cars...once the infrastructure is built that allows for hovering charging stations.

Flying cars will never be mainstream for 2 reasons:

1. Air traffic: Flying over gridlocked road traffic is the dream behind the flying car, but a significant increase in air traffic by, say, having flying cars that outnumber conventional small aircraft by some multiple, could threaten to make the trip slower than driving for the kinds of distances people currently drive. Sitting in traffic might be replaced by sitting on the tarmac (holding patterns take energy and will need to be minimized).

2. Costs: Up-front, maintenance, and energy - the latter two could be significantly decreased with electric flying cars (but with an increase in up-front costs), but not enough to make a high-maintenance vehicle that has to fight gravity the entire way to its destination affordable to the masses. New cars are already changing from a widely affordable commodity to a luxury for the rich, and flying cars are going to be in a higher league of expense no matter how you do them.

What you might see is flying cars taking the roles of private helicopters and somewhat expanding them.

ConiglioRampante said:

I'm all for battery powered flying cars...once the infrastructure is built that allows for hovering charging stations.

That's really good!!  Except,  there aren't flying  gas stations.  
I'm wrong there.  The military has them. 

GameboyRMH said:

Flying cars will never be mainstream for 2 reasons:

1. Air traffic: Flying over gridlocked road traffic is the dream behind the flying car, but a significant increase in air traffic by, say, having flying cars that outnumber conventional small aircraft by some multiple, could threaten to make the trip slower than driving for the kinds of distances people currently drive. Sitting in traffic might be replaced by sitting on the tarmac (holding patterns take energy and will need to be minimized).

2. Costs: Up-front, maintenance, and energy - the latter two could be significantly decreased with electric flying cars (but with an increase in up-front costs), but not enough to make a high-maintenance vehicle that has to fight gravity the entire way to its destination affordable to the masses. New cars are already changing from a widely affordable commodity to a luxury for the rich, and flying cars are going to be in a higher league of expense no matter how you do them.

What you might see is flying cars taking the roles of private helicopters and somewhat expanding them.

I like your thinking.  But since there would have to be a significant cost difference between cars on the ground and flying cars.  I suspect for a very long time , ground traffic will be much denser than air traffic.  
     If there were computers controlling everything in nano seconds  the need for spacing would disappear. 
   Granted there is a big element of 3D Chess to it all.  
However to computers working at the speed of light?  Piece of cake.   

It's not the future until we have jetpacks.

Not sure jetpacks would be viable.  
     First every place needs some version of weather protection. 
 Up here in the arctic Tundra  flying around in 40 degrees below temps would require really bulky and probably heavy  protective gear.   
  In the South with 110+ temps  I'm not sure how you could keep cool.  
  Then there is rain,  hail,and snow  to add to your misery.  
    Now of course you could have been teasing me, in which case I was stupid. I apologize then.  

Oh, with regard costs?  Cars are typically only used a little each day. A few hours if that.  
  So why buy a car/ flying car?  Why not take shares in it?   Costs would then be divided by everyone.$100,000 something could be divided at least 10 ways.   And then by the projected life of the unit.  So a monthly payment would amount to $100 a month. Leaving plenty for costs.  
    When you are finished, it goes back to base to be recharged and cleaned by robots.  Then goes into its storage slot.  2-3 cars would fit in the space of 1 car garage.    If it was needed by 2 people at about the same time, a different one  would replace it.  Rush hour could command a premium  so people would be rewarded for going in earlier or later.  

  A building the size of a 6 place apartment could probably handle more than a Thousand units.   

Never mind flying the airwaves, people are going to be dying in droves in their autonomous cars once Elon Musk programs his AI into cars with his brain engrams.

CNBC.com: U.S. clears way for truly driverless vehicles without steering wheels

Have a nice future. 

frenchyd said:

Robots will come down in costs and increase in abilities.  They probably will start out as no  contact charging ( maybe with pads on their feet? ). So as they step on your entrance mat they are charged on your electricity.  
  They would do domestic chores such as cleaning dusting washing, make beds, mow lawn,  trim hedges, make meals. Then on to the next house. 

frenchyd said:

When you are finished, it goes back to base to be recharged and cleaned by robots.  Then goes into its storage slot.  2-3 cars would fit in the space of 1 car garage.  

A building the size of a 6 place apartment could probably handle more than a Thousand units.   

frenchyd said:

  So why buy a car/ flying car?  Why not take shares in it?   Costs would then be divided by everyone.$100,000 something could be divided at least 10 ways.   And then by the projected life of the unit.  So a monthly payment would amount to $100 a month. Leaving plenty for costs.     

So timeshares on wheels/wings. The criminals who infest that business will pay homage to you (then steal it). Who would regulate that? Dept of Real Estate, FAA or MVD? :) 

I'm thinking big slot cars allowing higher speeds.  Think of those HO cars from our youth. 

Then each car has a magnetic attaching method allowing us to hook up with each other and freight train down the interstate.

We can be doing 150mph with our cars peg in the slot in the road. 

mblommel said:

It's not the future until we have jetpacks.

oh great, sky pedestrians!

Whenever I think of flying cars I think of two things:

Danger, everything breaks, and when that thing weighs several thousand pounds and is above you, well..... 

Invasion of privacy. No way in hell do I want people looking down on me, nor do I want them in my near sightlines causing anxiety and harshing my vibe.

If they followed current aircraft regulations  that would be more tenable, but they still have to land, and that means that while they may not be directly above you in your airspace, they may still be following a flightpath which creates aural and visible noise. 

Time top stock up on SAMs I guess.  

Personally, I think flying cars are stupid.  People complain about gas prices with cars, just add the energy it takes to fly, yea- that's not going to happen.

Like floating cars, adding multiple tasks makes the vehicle worse at everything due to compromises.  It won't fly very well because it has to drive, and it wont drive very well because it has to fly.