Flying cars crash into each other at Chinese air show

[fuglyduck@lemmy.world]

Low and slow is the most dangerous kind of flying you can do.

Flying cars are also inevitably less efficient and heavier than a dedicated counterpart, meaning the flight envelope is small, and your aircraft is less responsive.

(lower power to weight ratio, less efficient use of the lower,)

Also, any real pilot would be able to explain why flying cars are a bad idea… so they’re probably not all that experienced.

[rhaedas@fedia.io]

Flying cars are more dangerous than ground cars. Maybe we should just do flying mass transit with trained drivers instead.

[sharkattak@kbin.melroy.org]

m/fuckflyingcars
Jokes aside, what did they expect?

[fartswithanaccent@fedia.io]

Autonomous avoidance seems like a good idea...

[thelittleerik@lemmy.world]

Flying trams.

[underpantsweevil@lemmy.world]

In theory, sure.

In practice, a large number of autonomous vehicles traveling at high speeds might not be able to keep clear of one another consistently.

[underpantsweevil@lemmy.world]

Also, any real pilot would be able to explain why flying cars are a bad idea…

Every helicopter pilot can explain why helicopters are dangerous. But they're all still getting up in the morning to collect a paycheck.

[whynotsquirrel@sh.itjust.works]

or maybe you would just never reach the destination you wanted

[fuglyduck@lemmy.world]

Flying cars are, inherently, more dangerous than that.

Helicopters have loads of systems and design features that minimize the risks- and just to clarify, they're less likely to be involved in an incident than GA aircraft to begin with. they're absolute shit at gliding, so a loss of lift results in- at best- a controlled crash- where a plane has time. They're also more likely to be in the situation where they do not have the altitude or airspeed to glide even if they weren't dogshit at it, which combine to make them more dangerous to be in an incident with, but still not necessarily "unsafe".

Flying cars would be significantly worse than helicopters, as they have the same glide profile, presumably the same propensity for low-and-slow flight regimes; and probably an inability to autorotate as well (depends on the design. most of the ideas I've seen lately are some form of multirotor.)

Though that comment had nothing to do with their inherent lack of safety. It has everything to do with hybridizing land and air vehicles like that never actually works out well. They're going to be significantly more expensive than either specialized counterpart, less efficient, and less useful. This is why we've never seen them come off with commercial success before, and why we're likely to never see them work, ever. The mechanical nature of something that can both drive on a highway and fly is insanely complex.

And even with all that, they're also going to be significantly less safe than helicopters are today, probably spending far more time in the low-and-slow regime which makes incidents dramatically more unsafe, and given the usual argument of "reduces traffic" almost certainly going to be flown in areas with significant human presence (making them more likely to crash into someone.)

[not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

the flying "car" in question. Just seems like a quadcopter to me, but I guess that's why I'm not in marketing.

[phoenixz@lemmy.ca]

Anyone who does actual flying knows the enormous amount of knowledge and skill is required todo so.

Now imagine a whole collection of "hurrr durrr my daddy has a lotmof money" idiots taking to the sky

Enjoy the fun of the constant roaring of engines and propellers that randomly whizz by?

IF this shit ever hits the roads (enormous if), then the only way to do this well is when you apply the rules of aviation and within no time there will be rules limiting where you can take off and land and where you can fly and basically it all makes it that the flying car will be just another airplane

[lifeinmultiplechoice@lemmy.world]

Isn't that just a plane. I would say Bus, but that would be a really large bus to fit what 747's do. It's like 450 people plus cargo.

[canadiancarl@sh.itjust.works]

When you mean hits the road... Do you mean crash into it?

[rhaedas@fedia.io]

Yes. An air bus perhaps.

[mskx@lemmy.ml]

I guess we're not ready for that yet, but our kids are going to love it.

[lost_my_mind@lemmy.world]

Air travel is considered to be among the safest methods of travel.

.....but thats only because historically we only let experts operate those vehicles. You thought it was bad to drink and drive? Wait until uncle Randy has 250 hours logged to get a liscense, and he drinks and flies!

[bootloop@sh.itjust.works]

They should try coding and algorithms.

[noxypaws@pawb.social]

[noxypaws@pawb.social]

[ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works]

Hexacopter, but yeah, basically a microlight helicopter.