Uber's new Air Taxi on display

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PeaKr

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Its slated to hit the skys by 2023, summon one up with the Uber app. No word on price. It's more or less a fully automated giant drone. I didn't find much info on its safety. Admittedly I'm pessimistic, it seems a cheaper, lightweight helicopter would be a safer more proven tech with its auto-rotation feature in an engine failure situation. Larry Page is also developing a similar air taxi service.
 
tech companies you need to see the product in service to verify its real. Its similar to how almost every couple of months a new article from any major new service lists how theyre launching [Insert City Pair] similar to the concorde in [insert any year] with [insert how much less time and how much less money].


Still Waiting on [Insert the number of companies that were expected to launch this year]
 
Dan_D said:
I'll probably wait a good 5 to 10 years before i chance riding in one of those things.
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Somebody else already has these things running in Dubai. They are still in testing and haven’t yet been “approved” for consumer flights.
 
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The real bummer is by the time we finally get flying cars, we won't be able to fly them, some AI will get all the fun. Of course, seeing as how I remember reading about flying cars in the testing stage in the 70s, not too worried about them showing up now as a massed produced item.
 
Dan_D said:
I'll probably wait a good 5 to 10 years before i chance riding in one of those things.
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I have never ubered. I never will. And I will never ride an air taxi that a human doesnt control from inside the machine.
 
tangoseal said:
I have never ubered. I never will. And I will never ride an air taxi that a human doesnt control from inside the machine.
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Yes you will. I'm going to stick you in an Air Uber and fly you to work with an Xbox controller from my living room. Buckle up.
 
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With all the issues people have maneuvering their cars in ~1.3D (roads are not a 2D space. Closer to 1 dimension.) I am wondering how well they will do in 3D. (Okay, closer to 2.4D: not much vertical movement in comparison to the horizontal.)

A car (Tesla?) has a battery issue. Hey, scrub off your speed, if any, and you're safe on the ground.
What is the recovery mode for these cute little drones when something goes wrong? Gliding doesn't work without wings. Autorotation doesn't work without enough energy in the blades (mass, velocity), to be able to get one last flare.

Collision avoidance is doable, if the controls are removed/overridden. (Look at Boeing for how that doesn't work out sometimes. Airbus has similar issues. I'm -sure- a startup would avoid all those mistakes. /s ) What about mechanical failures? What about power/data line avoidance?
You don't like drones hovering over your daughter sunbathing? How about 4 guys hanging out the hovering....thing...and whooping it up? (THAT'D be funny. Especially when the angry dad comes out with the shotgun loaded with birdshot. ;) )

There are a LOT of issues beyond the "hey, a flying helo-car sounds cool".

FWIW.
 
c3k said:
With all the issues people have maneuvering their cars in ~1.3D (roads are not a 2D space. Closer to 1 dimension.) I am wondering how well they will do in 3D. (Okay, closer to 2.4D: not much vertical movement in comparison to the horizontal.)

FWIW.
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?????

Cars you control left, right, forward and reverse, or at least acceleration and deceleration. More than enough control on each of those axes to kill you or others, so I would suggest that it has a full two dimensions. I'd even give it 2.25d because while you don't control height, changes in it affect driving dynamics and control in the other two axes.

Your assessment of the flying bit is also lacking some perspective opn the reality of how it works.

I suspect that you may be one of those ones that makes driving worse. At the very least your basic counting skills are lacking.

As for crash options, depending on the weight of the thing, ballistic parachutes may be an option.
 
raz-0 said:
?????

Cars you control left, right, forward and reverse, or at least acceleration and deceleration. More than enough control on each of those axes to kill you or others, so I would suggest that it has a full two dimensions. I'd even give it 2.25d because while you don't control height, changes in it affect driving dynamics and control in the other two axes.

Your assessment of the flying bit is also lacking some perspective opn the reality of how it works.

I suspect that you may be one of those ones that makes driving worse. At the very least your basic counting skills are lacking.

As for crash options, depending on the weight of the thing, ballistic parachutes may be an option.
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Your ignorance is showing

So, 2D: an infinite sheet extending in all directions. Do you REALLY drive LEFT all the time, or do you drive FORWARD??? Roads are much closer to 1D...a line. Sure, you may move left and right up to 20 to 30 feet...while covering dozens of MILES. In reality, the road network is like a web of 1D routes. Sure, you may change routes, but you're not driving off the roads...for most folks. Maybe you do?

Your ability to maneuver to the left and right (and reverse) are extremely limited.

Fractal Geometry: it's here.

Happy to have you teach me about how I'm lacking perspective on how the flying bit actually works.

Lol.
 
TBH after writing that i had to hit up youtube and play the sequence with the B17 from the cartoon Heavy Metal.
and hey presto goosebumps here too,,,,,, Aaaa memory lane what a nice place to take a walk. :D

PS my post should also have read notorious landing gear problems,,,,,, thats the big kicker for a ball turret gunner.
 
Met a ball turret gunner at my AFB museum. I was a crew chief for C-5s. Gave that man a nice salute. The fucking brass cannonballs you had to have....
 
I'm still not seeing the economies that make this practical... How is this different from a helicopter? That taxi will not be cheap - if you look at the things that drive the cost of an aircraft (development, raw materials, manufacturing, etc.) it would be cheaper to use a city-certified helicopter (not all helicopters are certified for city use.) What makes an aircraft expensive is the liability for the manufacturer and operator, and I don't see this 'taxi' improving the cost of liability by 2023.

Is it going to be able to land more places than a helicopter? No. Helicopter rooftop landing pads are governed by the city, and are authorized according to review by the FAA, the zoning commission and the building's specifications (and also only by request of the owners of the building), which is why they have to use aircraft 'veriports' to land. I don't see why that's different than a helicopter.

Is it that much cheaper to operate when you're saving the cost of the pilot? I doubt it.

Time savings for the customer? How much time are you saving if you have to hop from three different vehicles? And again, why is this different than a helicopter?

I think Amazon's idea of using drones to deliver small packages has some merit. I think using multi-rotor systems like this to replace helicopters has merit (even for military applications.) In fact, I think that over time, multi-rotor systems like this will have a safety margin that makes helicopters obsolete. But this, now, as a taxi, in a for-profit business environment? I dunno. I'm not buying it.

It's a great deal for Bell Helicopter, though - they get to do all that research into design, manufacturing and operability on Uber's dime.

Oldmodder said:
TBH after writing that i had to hit up youtube and play the sequence with the B17 from the cartoon Heavy Metal.
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A lot of movies are cult classics - even millennials know about Caddy Shack. But for some reason Heavy Metal just faded into the mist. I don't understand that, it is an awesome movie, with a great soundtrack. "You see me now, a victim / Of a thousand psychic wars."
 
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tangoseal said:
I have never ubered. I never will. And I will never ride an air taxi that a human doesnt control from inside the machine.
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Once you've experienced a night combat landing from inside the back of a C23 Sherpa, you'll never go back (y)
 
will be interesting to see how well it does in the drone avoidance category and how vulnerable it will be to hackers over-riding the controls,m etc
 
In New York?

Spiderman's webz going to be some probs for the Uberz right?

They shoulda went for Jersey
 
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