The Problem with Flying Cars

For years, startups have been developing eVTOL (electric vertical take-off & landing) aircraft. The idea is that these vehicles could one day act as electric-powered flying cars or aerial taxis, helping people take short-haul flights without the need for fossil fuels. But despite roughly 15 years of development and billions of dollars of investment, there are no flying vehicles buzzing overhead in cities anywhere. Let’s take a look at why.

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#science #sciencenews #tech #vehicles

[sirwilliamkarl]

I taught people to fly paragliders for 35 years, most people are just not up to navigating in a three dimensional space.

[BW]

The problems with flying cars are far more fundamental.
1. The last mile problem. Even if you could magically find landing pads every few miles in a city... you still need to get from your house to a pad, then from the destination pad to your office. That could easily take as much time as just driving or taking transit anyway.
2. Energy physics. It takes less energy to roll a mass along the ground than move it through the air with powered fight.
3. Space. Pads and air lanes take a ton of space even vs. a car.
4. Infrastructure. You need pads (able to hold weight), charging stations/fuel delivery, etc.
5. Safety. If a car or driver fails, it typically stops, maybe hits another car, or possibly a pedestrian, yet even these are rare. If a flying car fails... it's almost immediately fatal to those on board and anything they hit -- which could be a building, cars, etc.
6. Any technology which can be applied to make a flying taxi viable -- more efficient electric batteries, charging stations, solutions to the last mile problems, etc. -- would also be applied to ground taxis, cars, or buses. Likewise, the massive infrastructure needs could simple be applied to reducing/eliminating the need to fly anyway -- work from home technologies, decentralized offices, move work areas to more rural areas, etc.
7. Cost. Given the cost of a single vehicle plus operating costs... it's going to be hard not justifying buying an electric bus or dozens of electric car taxis.

[cap-xhhy]

The biggest issue that I think eVTOLs have specifically, is that they are just electric helicopters being marketed as flying cars.

Done right; they could probably be a moderately compelling proposition for someone who is looking to fly from their penthouse to their Manhattan corner office without having to pay for gas.

But instead of going for the market of people who might actually be able to afford them, they try to market it as a means of affordable transportation. There's a reason why the iconic yellow cabs were Crown Vics and not Rolls Royce Phantoms.

[etcxg]

Anyone who's ever been inside a cockpit or otherwise listened to air traffic controllers better be terrified by the prospect of exponentially more aircrafts

[frankfahrenheit]

The biggest problem of flying cars is that they are flying.

[unknownrider]

I'm a pilot with a U.S. commercial, instrument, rotorcraft license, and flew helicopters professionally for many years. There is a shortage of commercial pilots, so who is going to fly these things? Are these taxi drivers going to weigh every one of their passengers and their luggage before takeoff to see if it will be safe to lift off? Flying at low-level in an urban environment is extremely hazardous. Obstructions like antennas and buildings combined with downdrafts will have people splattered against walls or falling to their deaths.

[zzip]

Almost got hired by lilium about 10y ago. Asked them some tough technical and business question and they made a bad impression of incompetent people who want to spend other people's money, not to make money by selling good products. I got a bad feeling and decided to go in another direction. Now i read about them and sadly discover I was exactly right. Not a single product in 10 years!!! And their product is not partucularly innovative from airplane point of view. US had Osprey long before them. Add to this that they dont have much clue about electric batteries and this appears to be their only difference with Osprey. They were doomed already 10y ago.

[mateos]

They will never be what they have promised. They will never solve traffic in densely populated places because in spite of flying in 3d, they still have to land in a 2d footprint, and there are still spacing requirements for aerial vehicles. I did some calcs, and they could handle, AT BEST, single digit percentages of NYC's daily commuters. Trains and busses are, once again, the actual answer to the problem.

[WonkyWiIl]

I'm hanging out for flying carpets.

[stjernis]

I'm surprised Sabine didn't bring up the pure physics aspect - spending huge amounts of energy to keep something at a level altitude when the ground does it for free just doesn't make much sense.

[katambrose]

I always wondered why flying taxi companies couldn’t get off the ground. Yes, you saw that joke coming a kilometer away.

[abarratt]

Autogyros were originally seen as an answer to urban flying. You can land one like a helicopter, they take off easily (depending), they fold up more readily than an aircraft.

The fact that they didn't become used for this purpose is a pretty good indication of just how hard it is to combine road (urban) and air travel into a single vehicle.

[calebgriffiths]

Personal flying vehicles in the suburbs will be a noise, privacy and safety problem. Governments will be well aware. Fortunately for the average person who cant afford one, they don't seem viable for anyone yet, !

[cannotbeleftblank]

An additional problem I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: where do you park them? The prototypes shown are big & bulky and take up the room of 5 SUVs or so. City centers are already cramped for space so if lots of people start using them for their commute, that's going to be a problem. You also can't stack them neatly as cars in a parking garage, and even if you did build such a facility, driving them in and out is going to be a real puzzle.

[jimhebert]

As a long time licensed pilot of both airplanes and helicopters, I can only imagine the horrors of the average person controlling a flying machines over densely populated cities. Also Aviation is an industry where small fortunes can be made from formerly large ones.

[goisenate]

Air taxi? Flying car? It can ONLY fly because it has no wheels.
So it's an electric helicopter.

[walterlampert]

We can barely drive in 2 dimensions, can you imagine the carnage in 3?

[chasg]

Given that people cannot be trusted on on the ground on a traffic circle or roundabout, there is no way I'm taking any low altitude taxi if the general public is flying there too.

[tarmaque]

As always, I don't want people flying over my head. I've seen them driving on my roads.

[jaroslavkyprianpolak]

Solution for traffic jams is known for centuries now - public transport.