Hundreds of flying taxis to be made in Ohio, home of the Wright brothers and astronaut legends
apnews.com
The same Ohio river valley where the Wright brothers pioneered human flight will soon manufacture cutting-edge electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.
  • deranger@sh.itjust.works
    English
    1172·
    10 months ago

    can we just please get some normal, boring, safe, efficient trains that actually function instead of this gizmo bullshit?

  • bender@insaneutopia.comEnglish
    704·
    10 months ago

    Joby’s production aircraft is designed to transport a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 miles (321.87 kilometers) per hour, with a maximum range of 100 miles (160.93 kilometers). I

    Back in my day we called these contraptions “helicopters”

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
      20·
      10 months ago

      And those were considered for use as “flying taxis” and they failed for the same reason these will: Flying and landing in cities is dangerous, which is why airports are built very far away.

      • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.caEnglish
        16·
        10 months ago

        It’s also expensive as fuck.

        Even if you have electric flying helicopters, the rotary component makes them very expensive to maintain as blades and components need to be replaced sometimes every 500 hours or less and require constant safety checks and inspections.

        Imagine how many taxi cabs have a malfunction of some sort every year. Now imagine that taxi cab crashing into a building or crowded street if it had a malfunction instead of just cruising to a halt on the side of the road.

      • Alexstarfire@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        All the airports I can think of have people living near them. Several are inside major cities.

        Airports are quite large though.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          These drone cars won’t be cheap either.

          Because it costs a lot more energy to keep something in the air and move it forward, than it is to move it forward on the road.

  • Addition@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    491·
    10 months ago

    I’ll never understand the eternal hype around “flying cars”. Fuckers out here can hardly drive on a 2d road. Now you want to introduce a third axis on them?

    I guarantee that if the general public gets their hands on a real “flying car”, it’ll take about 2 weeks before some drunk idiot commits a mini 9/11.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zipEnglish
      6·
      10 months ago

      The only way flying cars should ever get implemented is if they are 100% automatic.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        10 months ago

        • Create automatic taxi (impossible)

        • Create flying taxi (impossible)

        Okay, new plan!

        • Create automatic flying taxi (should be possible in the next 5-15 years)
        • pokemaster787@ani.socialEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Not saying it’s a good idea, but a lot of the complexity surrounding automated driving is actually because you are confined to a 2D space and have to follow roads/road signs. When you can just lift off and adjust verticality to avoid objects all you really need is a way to detect and avoid obstacles and some navigation logic. Landing is probably the most difficult part to automate.

          Not super easy but it is actually easier than self-driving cars (which is why almost all of a commercial flight is running on autopilot)

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            9 months ago

            When you can just lift off and adjust verticality to avoid objects

            You need to navigate between objects on an additional access. Also, manage speed and trajectory with a changing mass, as you exhaust fuel.

            Not rocket science, but its close.

            it is actually easier than self-driving cars (which is why almost all of a commercial flight is running on autopilot)

            Commercial flight follows lanes of traffic with regular well-regulated flight paths.

            One thing that gets helicopters and small engine aircraft pilots in trouble is that they don’t have any of that.

      • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        The FAA mandates extensive training for anyone who wants to fly, regardless of the form of the aircraft.

        Apparently not if the mass and maximum speed are both low enough. The Jetson One (which has been taking preorders for at least a couple of years but still isn’t shipping) says it won’t require a license in the US.

        It looks pretty impractical, produces an obnoxious amount of wind during landing and takeoff, and has a range of only 30km, but, still… it or things like it probably will actually be a reality for some rich people pretty soon.

          • Who knew?@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            & you are correct about airspace being regulated. Just because an ultralight doesn’t require a license doesn’t mean you can just fly it anywhere with no training on how to get airspace clearance either. I imagine they will eventually develop something like an automated version of the LAANC clearance process for drone pilots, but it will take a while to develop the regulations for sure, if they even get that far.

  • photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    English
    383·
    10 months ago

    Jesus fuck. It’s just like some auto execs to pull shit like this. Completely fuck up transportation infrastructure on the ground to your own benefit and everyone else’s detriment, then use your winnings to build taxis that can fly over the carnage you’ve wrought. We are living the Cyberpunk future.

  • CADmonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    10 months ago

    We already have “flying cars”. They’re called helicopters, and you need training and a license to fly them. Just like you’ll need for this thing and just like you need for a normal road-going car.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    132·
    10 months ago

    So, we’re just gonna burn more fuel. Wtf. We need legislative change to prevent shit like this.

  • rekabis@lemmy.caEnglish
    121·
    10 months ago

    Ohio is also the state which has the highest per-capita production of astronauts, with only New York and California producing more in terms of raw numbers.

    I wonder, what is it about Ohio that encourages people to flee the planet with such zeal?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    101·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Around the world, electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL aircraft are entering the mainstream, though questions remain about noise levels and charging demands.

    Still, developers say the planes are nearing the day when they will provide a wide-scale alternative to shuttle individual people or small groups from rooftops and parking garages to their destinations, while avoiding the congested thoroughfares below.

    Joby’s decision to locate its first scaled manufacturing facility at a 140-acre (57-hectar) site at Dayton International Airport delivers on two decades of groundwork laid by the state’s leaders, Republican Lt. Gov.

    Its financial package wasn’t the largest, but the chance to bring the operation to the birthplace of aviation — with a workforce experienced in the field — sealed the deal, he said.

    Bevirt said operations and hiring will begin immediately from existing buildings near the development site, contingent upon clearing the standard legal and regulatory hurdles.

    Toyota, a long-term investor, worked with Joby in 2019 to design and to successfully launch its pilot production line in Marina, California.

    The original article contains 862 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Who knew?@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    6·
    10 months ago

    I’m hoping regulations get in the way of this. The FAA is barely comfy letting people fly a drone beyond line of sight with a waiver, fully automated flight for untrained passengers is going to take some doing.

    • Syringe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      I’m making this claim based on the Wright Bros exhibit at the Smithsonian Air and space museum…

      One of the genius things that they did was invent scaled testing (I’m not 100% sure I can make this claim, but I’d be happy to learn it I was wrong). Rather than building the device and testing it, which killed a lot of people through history, they built miniature components and tested them individually to prove concepts, and THEN built their production version in iterations.

      Like, to test airfoil designs, they built a table top sized wind tunnel, put a miniature airfoil in, and evaluated its performance, and made determinations for the final product. This SIGNIFICANTLY lowered design costs and prototyping at the time.

      This also happened to result in an airplane.