this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
154 points (88.5% liked)

Technology

70711 readers
3366 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
all 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] bender@insaneutopia.com 61 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

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 21 points 2 years ago (21 children)

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.ca 16 points 2 years ago (6 children)

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.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

Airports are quite large though.

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Any of those airports have skyscrapers next to them like in big cities?

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

At least one. Hong Kong.

load more comments (18 replies)
[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Get outta here with all your common sense making, hater.

[–] ieightpi@lemmy.world 43 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Trains and Trams please and thank you

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

No. Only the promise of a single-person direct-to-destination fee-for-service that ends up being a giant scam.

We will never build mass transit in this country. You can't make us.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Where America is going to come unstuck is with the electric car.

Either you guys are going to have to build up more electrical infrastructure which you don't want to do, or you're going to have to develop public transit options, would you also don't seem to want to do.

Then the GOP will somehow try and turn it into a political issue (because they are lunatics) and nothing will get done, and then no one will be able to go anywhere because they will be stuck living in a country that is designed for a mode of transit that no longer exists, and no one has bothered to update it in any way. And then your kids are going to overthrow the government because they won't be able to understand why everyone in Europe can go wherever they want.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

A few major metro areas with big finance and tech sectors will get a bunch of pilot programs that cost way too much and never get fully implemented.

Then we'll get told that the tech is too expensive and we can't do it.

Meanwhile, China will be building a BRI that moves people at 600 mph from Beijing to Rabat.

[–] ieightpi@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You forgot your /s

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.

[–] Prandom_returns@lemm.ee 30 points 2 years ago

Fucking waste of resources.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years 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.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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?

[–] Astroturfed@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Ya, it's almost like once you've seen Ohio you have this urge to get off the ground. The planet even, if possible. You no longer want to touch anything else attached to Ohio.

[–] jasondj@ttrpg.network 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You’ve clearly never been to Cleveland.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 years ago

Considering it has a scatological sexual act named after it, do I really want to?

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 2 years ago

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

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 8 points 2 years 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!

[–] Hardeehar@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Wasn't there some controversy with who had the first flying machine? There was supposedly some guy in CT that flew an aircraft before the brothers?

EDIT - found this article Three states bicker over 'first in flight' claim

[–] Syringe@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Hardeehar@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Probably helped lower some risk, too.

[–] cy_narrator@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 years ago

Go to India and they will tell you that Right Brothers stole an Indian genius sketch and killed him

[–] Addition@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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.

[–] c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Drink idiots hit things in cars all the time.

Make the test to acquire your license actually difficult to the skill level required instead of the "you can take two left turns and park shitty, here's your license" level of difficulty that most states use for road vehicles.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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

load more comments (3 replies)