Why do so many people want flying cars?

[fiveleafclover]

Look at how people drive with their tires on the road. Do we really want them doing that up in the air? Can you imagine the damage?

"It's 2005! Weren't we supposed to have flying cars by now?"

Everytime I hear that question, I cringe. The thought of people talking on their cell phones, flying their SUVs through the air...it's just too much.

[Wabbajack]

1. Flying is cool that's why

[fiveleafclover]

2. Oh yeah, it's cool

But do you really want the average driver flying over your house?

[Copperred]

17. The man to watch is Moller....he'll get there

The average driver will not be allowed to fly.


Most VTOL aircraft...will still need a pilots license.

[fiveleafclover]

24. It's so easy to get a regular driver's license

in most places, I hope they wouldn't lower the standards for a pilot's license in that case.

[Mairead]

33. Moller's idea doesn't look too good to me

It has the power-off glide angle of a rock!

I suspect that this machine or similar will win--it's very safe in the air unless it breaks up. Merely losing power won't kill you:



It also costs less than a Toyota.

[gulfcoastliberal]

54. I'm from Davis - Moller squandered a fortune on his idea

Broke up his finances, family, and his idea still can't fly.

The autgyro post above is about the right speed. "Little Nelly" as she was known "You only Live Twice".

[Copperred]

56. Paul's science is sound.

Paul has not squandered....when that company finally takes off it will go threw at least another $500MM.....

Paul never professed to be Henry Ford......but at a minimum he is Nicola Tesla when it comes to his VTOL.....

[gulfcoastliberal]

66. I respectfully disagree

To compare him to Tesla is dishonoring all of Tesla's amazing contributions to our world that make our civilization possible.

[Wabbajack]

65. No but I want to fly over his

and we have equal rights in this country.

[Kipling]

3. If we're talking fantasy, just give them computers that stop crashes!

[fiveleafclover]

7. You're onto something there

What if the flying cars were like KIT from Knight Rider. Now that would be pretty cool, and a lot safer than if they were under the control of soccer moms.

[BrotherBuzz]

20. Flying cars and computers are not a fantasy!

Wonderfully crazy dude up the road from me has already made the flying car and is closing in on the computer collision thingy. Bummer, the FAA still won't allow him fly to them untethered.



http://www.moller.com/

[shanti]

53. exactly

there could be some kind of avoidance system installed :shrug:

[Botany]

4. Meet George Jetson .......

..... Jane his wife ........

Astro was way cooler then Scooby Doo too.

[Fovea]

5. In one of Larry Niven's short stories.

a character in the future is introduced to some 20th century recreationists who have restored automobiles and a section of desert highway. One of them offers him a ride, and realizing the vehicle is completely controlled by human reflexes, he backs away, as from a dangerous lunatic.

There isn't a paper's width of difference between Beowulf Shaffer and I on that one.

[fiveleafclover]

10. I haven't read that one

Sounds interesting. Do you remember the name of it?

[Fovea]

13. Not off hand

but it was in one of the Tales of known space anthologies, i believe.

[growlypants]

6. So they can get nowhere faster.

Everyone is in a rush to go nowhere. I see it all the time. Im a pharmacist and people cant wait 10 seconds for their prescription. Everyone's gotta pick the kids up from the bus stop (well then, come back later) or pick up the housekeeper and the nanny (my personal favorite) get to their tennis lessons, etc etc etc.

[ComerPerro]

21. When I worked retail customer service

I had a woman yell at me because it was taking too long to get her order (she had asked for a large piece of furniature, and apparently wanted to come in the store, grab the tag for it, have it brought to her, pay for it, and have it loaded into her car in 2 minutes). She yelled at me because "My son has hockey practice at (someplace I knew was six miles away) in five minutes, and you are going to make me late!". I apologized (one thing about retail, you have to take shit from people, and some of them are full aware of that fact and exploit the hell out of it). She got even angrier, and demanded to speak to a manager.

The manager on duty was a really cool guy. He came up pretty quckly, and the lady yelled at him for a long time, then demanded to be compensated somehow. He patiently listened, then tore her to pieces. He said something to the effect of, "Look, I don't appreciate you coming in here and harassing my employees for something that seems like a time management problem on your part. You say you have your son's hockey practice in a few minutes-"

She interrupted with "Well, I'm late now. What are you going to do about it?"

He continued "We are open until 9pm. Its 3:30 now. Unless your son's practice lasts five hours, I'd advise next time coming in when you have more time. And, next time you are in such a hurry, don't decide to come into a store and spend fifteen minutes yelling at anyone who will listen. You will never get anywhere on time that way."


I really liked working for him.

Some people are just slime, and it really astounds me that stores are so caught up in "the customer is always right" that they let customers treat the employees and management like absolute shit. Many people know that if you yell and make a scene you will get your way, and policiies like that only encourage them to go through life as ashsoles.

[fiveleafclover]

26. Retail and restaurant work are both

the worst. In restaurants, you have to deal with hungry cranky people. Why anyone wants to piss off people who are making their food is beyond me.

[ComerPerro]

39. I've never understood that either

I've actually scolded friends of mine before at restraunts if I thought they were being rude to the server.

"What the fuck? One, you shouldn't treat people like that, and Two, they are handling your food!"

[Ian David]

37. The customer is always as right as they can be without driving you broke

Because if your company went broke, that would be bad for all the other customers.

I've used that line many, many times.

[growlypants]

61. actually, from my experience, the customer is rarely if EVER right.

[fiveleafclover]

64. But almost always RIGHTEOUS

[Cocoa]

8. fuck flying cars!

:bounce:

[ComerPerro]

9. It opens up an interesting debate. There are pros and cons to flying cars

The pro, of course, is that we will no longer be driving on a plane. We That means that these idiots won't be in front of you, they won't be swerving into you, and you won't have to worry about running off the road or almost hitting a tree avoiding somebody (happened to me the other day, almost hit a pole to avoid hitting someone whose car started hydroplaning so he slammed on the breaks. What the hell is with that mentality, that makes people think, "Hey, I don't have any traction, its raining very hard, and there are people behind me. I better stop suddenly and quickly!". But I digress...


Of course, there are cons as well, aside from obvious issues such as energy consumption, the safety issues, and the fact that flying cars do not exist. The biggest one: Instead of having everyone contained in a road on a 2D surface, they are now all free to move in three dimensions. That means that now you don't have to just worry about someone stopping suddenly in front of you or sideswiping you. You have to worry about some moron hitting you from above or below.


People want flying cars so they can get away from all the idiots driving on the road. But, many people have realized that the idiots will be right up there in the sky with them.

[fiveleafclover]

15. People can't seem to handle

forward, backwards, left and right. Throwing in UP and DOWN isn't a good idea.

[ComerPerro]

23. exactly

[RagAss]

11. Flying Cars...haaaa....

We wipe our brows when we get a safe return from a space flight around the earth. Something John Glenn did in a tin can in 1962....No doubt about it..we are going backwards....and oh by the way..the earth is now 5,000 years old.....!!!!

[Secular Agent Man]

12. Take the Eldorado To The Moon

Mike Nesmith (Monkee) did a song about that a few years ago. Sounds like he might be in favor of the idea. Would be a real bummer to get creamed by someones muffler falling off. :spank:

[fiveleafclover]

16. "Did a bird just poop on me,

or does someone have an oil leak?"

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. I'm with you on the idiocy of flying cars

With just private and commercial planes flying, we need an elaborate air traffic control system to keep them from crashing into each other. Add a couple million bozos who think that flying cars mean no more traffic rules, and watch disasters happen constantly as the air traffic controllers are unable to keep up and the bozos ignore them anyway.

For a more literally down-to-earth example, imagine hundreds of cars trying to maneuver in a parking lot that isn't striped. Can you say "Dodge 'em"? I've been in situations like that (after concerts and such) and it's unnerving. Roads are striped for a reason.

[Mythsaje]

18. I actually cover this topic

at one point in my third novel.

I point out the obvious danger...if your car breaks down on the freeway, you roll to the side of the road (hopefully). If your flying car breaks down...

REAL bad juju.

[crispini]

19. No, a jetpack!

Solely because it's cool. :7

[Tyranny_R_US]

35. The only problem would be

If you had engine problems mid-flight :)

[Botany]

43. Would you fly to Gull Bay?

New chapter ...... in the club house

Besides ..... "Meet George Jetson.......:"

Better to fly then be put in "the wheel"

[atommom]

22. No, I don't trust most other drivers with flying cars. But it's true

that we were "supposed" to have them by now. Actually, I'd be satisfied with a regular car that folded into a lightweight briefcase like George Jetson's.

[fiveleafclover]

27. I'd settle for the robot maid.

[atommom]

29. Actually, I need one of those too. I could never understand, BTW,

why Jane had to stay home when everything was so automated. Shouldn't she have been out working or having fun? If I had a robot maid, I'd take full advantage of it!

[fiveleafclover]

32. Maybe Rosey and Jane had a little something

going on. There's a thought.

[atommom]

36. I KNEW Jane seemed way too wholesome to be believed ....

[pitohui]

25. because of destruction of landscape caused by road system

not needing a highway & roadway infra-structure would be a huge bonus for preserving what's left of our ag lands and natural landscapes

[teknomanzer]

28. Its really about expectations...

I know I've posted a few times about my desire for a flying car... but in reality I know that if everyone had a flying car it would be a disaster. But I think what is really being expressed in a way is our expectation that we had about what the future would be. Now the future is here 2005 and sure we have some nifty gadgets, Cell phones, laptops, GPS locaters, the internet... but we expected more... maybe not utopia but something better... maybe there is some collective regret that perhaps too much money has been squandered on military advancement and not enough on other areas of scientific and social development... I think my big let down is that we are still using petroleum... we're still damaging the environment... we're still killing each other for resources... there is no moon colony or
space station orbiting Saturn... I can't communicate with dolphins or play chess with cybernetic chimps... (sigh) and damn it where is my solar powered flying car?!

[fiveleafclover]

30. A fun thing to watch

Those old "World of the Future" films from the 50's. I used to have a bookmark to some, but I can't find it now.

Growing up, we used to talk about what it would be like in the year 2000. It seemed so magical, moving into a new century and a new millennium. Now it's just...2005. It seems so mundane now.

[Gregorian]

31. NOOOOOOOO! I dread flying cars.

No more traffic, more fun, great views, and so on and so forth.

Now, imagine you just made enough money to buy that beautiful piece of private, property. Now imagine you're sitting on your front porch listening to crickets and watching a beautiful sunset. Suddenly from over a hill comes a flying car full of teenagers blasting down on you. And don't even think about if they were drunk. It's going to happen. Well, unless we can't find an energy source that meets the demands we are expecting. I have thought about this subject for twenty years now. And so many times I've been thankful that these really cool, really fun, and really rotten annoying privacy destroying vehicles are not here yet.

The day people are considerate, careful and kind, is the day I will possibly welcome flying cars. Until then, I would literally rather have flying elephants.

[fiveleafclover]

34. "The day people are considerate, careful and kind..."

So in other words, you're completely against it?

[Ian David]

41. Flying cars would need computer control, the rules would be easy

1) There would need to be built-in collision avoidance.

2) There would need to be "skyways" with "lanes" in the sky, with rules similar to current "Visual Navigation Rules." For example, traffic moving North-to-South at odd intervals of 100 feet, East-to-West at even intervals of 100 feet. Which, by the way, is the same way highway numbers are chosen. Speaking of highways...

3) Skylanes could follow already existing highways, which would also serve as landing pads.

4) Traffic would travel alongside (not directly on top of) existing highways. When someone wants to land, their skycar would "shift lanes" to the left to land on the highway near their exit. The autopilots would be pre-programed with your destination, and start shifting you into position for landing as you approached. There would be no traffic below you, because your "lane" would be for landing only. Take-offs would work similarly. Perhaps northbound lanes for landing, southbound lanes for take-offs.

[fiveleafclover]

44. That's the only way it would work

If humans had as little control over them as possible, it could happen. When a flying car needs to land on a highway, would the drivers of the ground cars be on their own, as far as looking out for the landing cars? The computers could detect the ground cars and try to avoid them, but it couldn't predict the actions of the drivers. Would the ground cars have to be modified for safety?

[Gregorian]

45. This car is supposed to solve a problem.

And unless we can take off and land from our own residence, it makes no sense at all. Especially if we live in the middle of Mendocino county. My guess is that there would be exceptions in rural cases. I know, it's quite doable. Right now there are minimum elevation standards. And I'm being hitrionic.
Actually, the amount of energy required to elevate a vehicle, is the same as the normal forces that the roads currently supply. And that's a hell of a lot. So until we are free from oil, and we can supply huge quantities of energy through nuclear, or solar collection, this thing will just sit where it's been for the last twenty years.

And having said all of that, who wouldn't want one of these? What a blast.

[Ian David]

55. Certain residential roads would be designated for take-off

Others would be designated for landing.

If one car is allowed to land on a given road once every minute, then there will be a predictable interval between cars. In fact, you could time it so that take-offs are at odd-numbered minute intervals, and landings at even-numbered minute intervals.

Cars would only be under human control once they are off the take-off and landing roads.

[Gregorian]

46. Is it that obvious?

Yeah, I'm quite a pessimist. As I grow older, I realize I didn't need to hate people quite so much. Just republicans.

I've been very lucky to have grown up around the most amazingly kind and thoughtful people. I still can't believe the bubble I lived in. It all changed with bush. Boy, what a wake-up.

[Mairead]

38. Yet there's no reason that we would have to allow "flying car" drivers

to go wherever they like. We could restrict them, as we restrict automobiles today. No FUI, no crossing over houses, etc.

What would be nice is to limit privately-owned powered vehicles to low weights and speeds. Want to go from A to B fast? Take the bus!

[Gregorian]

47. That kind of negates it's purpose.

Most of the country is rural. In the city, it would work. But in the city, I see no reason for it. In the country, you'd have to stop at some central location? And it could be 100 miles from home. Plus the energy required to keep this thing afload is enormous. Like I said above, that's why it has been sitting idle for 20 years, even though it really works. Ultimately it a very cool idea.

[Mairead]

51. No, why would you have to stop 100 miles away?

I'm only talking about not going cross-country below a certain altitude (tho I see I didn't actually mention the 'cross-country' part). I.e., disallow hedgehopping over people's patios and gardens.

(I still say that guy's scheme is like a flying rock)

[Gregorian]

52. It's a flying rock.

I was just saying it would make no sense that one would have to stop at a central landing location, and then get in a car to drive home, in order to avoid going over residences. And that could be a very long drive for much of the people in the country. I think you were saying, one would stay at an altitude until they reached their residence, and vertically drop down to land. That's one answer.

Also, you're right, it has absolutely no failsafe. That kills the idea right there, unless they had a parachute, or something. Even helicopters can "gyro down".

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fiveleafclover]

42. Who says I'm not already

a quivering pile of steaming red dog poo?

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JNelson6563]

49. I don't, I want jet-packs.

Way cooler. B-)

[fiveleafclover]

60. Yeah, jet packs would be sweet

Especially if they could be concealed. You could get out of a lot of jams that way! Thank about it...you're at the next family reunion. Somebody says, "Who ate all the cheesecake?" Hit the switch and shoot up into the air, thus freeing yourself from the embarrassment on the ground below! Marvelous!

[B Calm]

50. If Bush hadn't stolen the election in 2000 from Al Gore, we would

all be driving solar powered flying cars by now. Think of the tax dollars we would save on road repairs alone!

[wli]

57. I'd rather ride the subway in Tokyo n/t

[Bluebear]

58. Our inner George Jetson. n/t

[hayu_lol]

59. The Flying Car...we had that in 1948

The wings and tail was detachable...when you landed, you unbolted the wings and tail section and drove to your destination. There were working prototypes.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/exhibits/futuristics/auto/4.html

[terrya]

62. But...I want it to be like "Back to the Future II"!

Can we have time travelling flying Deloreans, as well?

[spuddonna]

63. Uh, because they are wicked cool? n/t

[BlueJac]

67. Get Real

We will all be riding bicycles soon enough. :silly: