Uber invests millions to build flying taxis in France

[JacksinPA]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/01/tech/uber-flying-taxi-france/index.html

Uber planning flying taxis for 2023

(CNN Business) Uber wants to build flying taxis in France.

The company announced Thursday that it plans to invest €20 million ($23.4 million) in developing an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft in France over the next five years.

It will open a new research and development center in Paris, its first technology hub outside of North America.
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Neat stuff. Very forward looking. Will be interesting to see this take off (pun intended).

 

[Jetboogieman]

"Welcome to France, home of the midair collision."

In all seriousness, I don't know about any of this flying Taxi stuff, even with advancements in technology, do I see this being economically viable anytime soon>

It's a simple equation of Cost. Practicality. Capacity. Sustainability. Safety.

And this is why nonsense like the Hyperloop will never happen.

Could be wrong about particular thing, but I don't see this being viable anytime soon, I mean ****, what's the average amount of maintenance on a helicopter?

20 maintenance man hours per hours flying depending on the type of aircraft?

 

[JacksinPA]

A big problem is safety due to airspace congestion & need for advanced navigational & collision=avoidance systems. Plus depend on the French to pile on the regulations.

 

[Xelor]

Uber invests millions to build flying taxis in France

The concept is quite cool.

I'm not sure I cotton to the prospect of "mere mortals," rather than highly trained pilots flying anything larger than a "toy" drone. After all, people aren't particularly close to accident-free when driving in one direction (horizontally) on the ground and, more or less, in a "straight" line. I just don't see folks being any more accident-free while controlling vehicles travel that travel horizontally and vertically, and that don't have things like trees, buildings, and other terrain obstacles that basically constrain one to operating the vehicle on designated roads and trails.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

We are nowhere close to this happening. Some new technology has to be invented and infrastructure developed before this goes mainstream. Modern aircraft are noisy. Imagine if all those cars were as loud as a helicopter? They will need to cut that down. And we absolutely don’t want average Joes operating them. They will need to be fully automated.

And let’s not forget about terrorism. Look at the damage terrorists can do with regular vehicles. Imagine what they would do with flying cars.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

People need to stop using the term "FLYING CARS" because anything that flies is not a car, it's an aircraft.
So Uber isn't investing in building "flying taxis", it's investing in making consumer level aircraft for use as a taxi.
But these are aircraft, and most likely they will be a type of helicopter, a multi rotor type.

Cars don't have rotor blades, they have WHEELS and they travel on roadways. That's what makes them CARS, which is short for "carriages". Anything that flies is not a carriage, it's an airplane.

 

[Jetboogieman]

People need to stop using the term "FLYING CARS" because anything that flies is not a car, it's an aircraft.
So Uber isn't investing in building "flying taxis", it's investing in making consumer level aircraft for use as a taxi.
But these are aircraft, and most likely they will be a type of helicopter, a multi rotor type.

Cars don't have rotor blades, they have WHEELS and they travel on roadways. That's what makes them CARS, which is short for "carriages". Anything that flies is not a carriage, it's an airplane.

As informative as this may be, I think there's more important issues with this idea than simply the semantics of the name.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

As informative as this may be, I think there's more important issues with this idea than simply the semantics of the name.

Promoting the use of an ignorant term like "flying cars" is getting off to a bad start. No reasonable or intelligent discourse about this issue may be had unless we put that ridiculous term to rest once and for all.

That doesn't invalidate what you're saying, but we must observe proper perspective.
Calling anything a flying car guarantees that the public will never see this in proper perspective, thus it is more than simple semantics.

 

[Jetboogieman]

Promoting the use of an ignorant term like "flying cars" is getting off to a bad start. No reasonable or intelligent discourse about this issue may be had unless we put that ridiculous term to rest once and for all.

That doesn't invalidate what you're saying, but we must observe proper perspective.
Calling anything a flying car guarantees that the public will never see this in proper perspective, thus it is more than simple semantics.

Unfortunately that's something you're probably just going to have to live with, the Media, particularly American Media, is pretty science illiterate at times which is why for example, every few months they go nuts about the Hyperloop, even though its nonsense.

They invent the lexicon, the masses simply consume it and regurgitate, don't think you're gonna win the semantics game from the DP bully pulpit, but I get what you're saying.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

People need to stop using the term "FLYING CARS" because anything that flies is not a car, it's an aircraft.
So Uber isn't investing in building "flying taxis", it's investing in making consumer level aircraft for use as a taxi.
But these are aircraft, and most likely they will be a type of helicopter, a multi rotor type.

Cars don't have rotor blades, they have WHEELS and they travel on roadways. That's what makes them CARS, which is short for "carriages". Anything that flies is not a carriage, it's an airplane.

You are absolutely correct, but my guess is the term “flying car” is here to stay, at least until it becomes a real thing and a brand name is applied to it.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

You are absolutely correct, but my guess is the term “flying car” is here to stay, at least until it becomes a real thing and a brand name is applied to it.

My guess is that they will be called "flying cars" right up until the first time one of them CRASHES, the FAA gets involved and the public starts hearing terms like "altitude" "uncontrolled descent" and maybe even "pilot error" if anything that equates to a pilot is involved.

 

[JacksinPA]

We are nowhere close to this happening. Some new technology has to be invented and infrastructure developed before this goes mainstream. Modern aircraft are noisy. Imagine if all those cars were as loud as a helicopter? They will need to cut that down. And we absolutely don’t want average Joes operating them. They will need to be fully automated.

Ever had your computer crash or get infected? In any automated system the weakest link is the computer driving the system. What could possibly go wrong?