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Fying cars unrealistic or overregulated

♪alt13

♪alt13

Well-Known Member
Many of the proponents for flying cars claim that regulations from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are what are standing between the US middle class and affordable flying vehicles. Is this the truth or is mass production of flying vehicles an unrealistic pipe dream?
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I thought flying cars were a good idea when I was in 1st grade.


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Just like the video phone, voice activated appliances and robot butlers, I think flying cars are not practical or really desired. Fun ideas that just don't make life that much easier compared to their complexity and cost.
 
Gameface said:
Just like the video phone, voice activated appliances and robot butlers, I think flying cars are not practical or really desired. Fun ideas that just don't make life that much easier compared to their complexity and cost.
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And I realize skype is popular and successful, but for most phone communications we've gone the complete opposite direction with texting. Voice activation exists and is practical but I actually prefer flipping a light switch to saying "lights on." Flipping a switch is about the easiest thing in the world and I haven't had any technical problems getting a light switch to work. Reliable, easy and cheap.

Same with flying cars. Look at most people's driving habits. They don't want to focus on driving, they want to play with their phone while hurtling down the freeway. Why would those same idiots want to not pay attention to flying their car? Plus I'm guessing the gas mileage, maintenance requirements and potential for fatal accidents will never compete with a wheeled vehicle.
 
Flying cars scare the **** out of me. Like we need to give clowns out there two more directions in which to **** up.
 
When I was younger we would just hot box in a car (while parked) and pretend it was a flying car.
 
I don't like any of the ones that are actually close to being reality.

Terrafugia's TF-X looks interesting though, if they could pull it off(which they claim they will be able to within 10 years):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp2TWNpTA7s
 
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Gameface said:
They don't want to focus on driving, they want to play with their phone while hurtling down the freeway. Why would those same idiots want to not pay attention to flying their car? Plus I'm guessing the gas mileage, maintenance requirements and potential for fatal accidents will never compete with a wheeled vehicle.
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1. I think we would have fewer accidents, because you wouldn't be clogging people onto freeways. We could use gps to make a lot of the flying hands free.

2. We could shave a good amount of costs out by simply having to build fewer highways.

3. I don't think we should ever allow someone to fly around in their 70's Pinto. This would definitely be geared towards people commuting in and out of large cities.
 
heyhey said:
1. I think we would have fewer accidents, because you wouldn't be clogging people onto freeways. We could use gps to make a lot of the flying hands free.

2. We could shave a good amount of costs out by simply having to build fewer highways.

3. I don't think we should ever allow someone to fly around in their 70's Pinto. This would definitely be geared towards people commuting in and out of large cities.
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Good points. But...

1. Yeah, with automated navigation and such it might actually be easier and safer to fly cars. But accidents will likely be more deadly on a per accident basis.

2. "We" could shave off costs, but the individual buying a flying car wouldn't see any of those savings. Plus I imagine during the 20-50 year transition period going from all wheeled vehicles to mostly flying vehicles we won't be able to cut back on our freeway system much. Plus we'd be divided between building mass transit, maintaining the current freeway system and creating infrastructure for flying vehicles. So I don't think there would be any cost savings for a very long time, and back to my first sentence, the individual paying for the flying car would be shouldering even more expense.

3. I don't quite follow. I imagine a flying car would have to be purpose built and that the first few generations of these that are truly mass market would be extremely expensive. So really I see us mostly going in a different direction, towards mass transit, more efficient vehicles and automated driverless vehicles.
 
Gameface said:
Just like the video phone, voice activated appliances and robot butlers, I think flying cars are not practical or really desired. Fun ideas that just don't make life that much easier compared to their complexity and cost.
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Oh so you mean like when I facetime with my parents who live in a different state so they can see my kid? Yeah, that stuff is pretty impractical and not really desired. I mean, it is such a complex thing to press the facetime button instead of the call button when I pull out my pocket sized iphone...

haha. dude, videophone is rad and it is here to stay. Voice activation is here to stay too, as there are a lot of things that are voice activated now, like those stupid korean cars that Blake Griffin drives in the commercials.
 
Gameface said:
Good points. But...

1. Yeah, with automated navigation and such it might actually be easier and safer to fly cars. But accidents will likely be more deadly on a per accident basis.

2. "We" could shave off costs, but the individual buying a flying car wouldn't see any of those savings. Plus I imagine during the 20-50 year transition period going from all wheeled vehicles to mostly flying vehicles we won't be able to cut back on our freeway system much. Plus we'd be divided between building mass transit, maintaining the current freeway system and creating infrastructure for flying vehicles. So I don't think there would be any cost savings for a very long time, and back to my first sentence, the individual paying for the flying car would be shouldering even more expense.

3. I don't quite follow. I imagine a flying car would have to be purpose built and that the first few generations of these that are truly mass market would be extremely expensive. So really I see us mostly going in a different direction, towards mass transit, more efficient vehicles and automated driverless vehicles.
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I totally agree about the mass transit being more popular in the future, and the accidents being more dangerous on a regular basis.

Also, imagine if you had to do a pre trip inspection like planes EVERY single time you drove your dang car. We would be spending like our entire lives checking the cars for safety. What if your car breaks down while driving? No big deal, just pull it to the side of the road, and call a tow truck, or if you are a redneck like me, just hook up your buddies truck to it with a chain, and tow it to your garage, where you will fix it in a couple weeks. If your plane car breaks down while flying? You probably die a horrible, fiery and dramatic death. That is probably why we will not have flying cars. Vehicles dedicated to flying that are more affordable? I could see that before flying cars.
 
Flying cars seems like a bad idea all together. Death toll would skyrocket. Imagine the running out of gas in a flying car. How about all the idiots drinking and flying tnto houses and building structures.

Just saying....
 
b_line said:
Oh so you mean like when I facetime with my parents who live in a different state so they can see my kid? Yeah, that stuff is pretty impractical and not really desired. I mean, it is such a complex thing to press the facetime button instead of the call button when I pull out my pocket sized iphone...

haha. dude, videophone is rad and it is here to stay. Voice activation is here to stay too, as there are a lot of things that are voice activated now, like those stupid korean cars that Blake Griffin drives in the commercials.
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Yeah, so how often do you video phone as compared to text? If you call your GF across town would you prefer to video phone her or text her?

I don't know what the numbers are, but I think it's clear, people prefer texting to even having a voice call let alone a video call. They are great for long distance situations where you want to see family, but they are not a replacement to phone calls, as many expected them to be. The replacement for phone calls is a text.

so do you turn your lights on with voice activation? I've used a little voice activation and I think it's pretty lame. I can make a call by saying "call home" but I don't. I touch-screen two buttons and I'm callig home without having to make noises. That's what I'm saying. The future is here and we've been pretty meh about these innovations that were supposed to revolutionize our lives.

You didn't even point out the iRobot vacuum cleaners. My mom had one. Eventually she bought a Dyson. They work, but we still vacuum our floors ourselves for the most part.
 
Thee jazz fan said:
Flying cars seems like a bad idea all together. Death toll would skyrocket. Imagine the running out of gas in a flying car. How about all the idiots drinking and flying tnto houses and building structures.

Just saying....
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Ehhh, I mean, it all depends on how advanced and intuitive the technology is.
 
Thee jazz fan said:
You mean there's technology that trumps idiots and drunks??
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You talked about running out of gas as something that could go wrong. Technology could prevent the thing from just shutting down, there would be safeguards against those types of failures.

And yes, the technology can make the car easier to use, making it easier for drunk people to use. It's not like drunks don't do the same thing with land vehicles. The easier it is to use though, the less wrecks that will happen, drunk or sober.
 
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