Flying Cars could be a reality by the 2020s (and my thoughts on them)
They promised us flying cars, and it looks like they will deliver on that promise.
Even when electric cars are still classified as "emerging tech", there might be something even cooler, even more mind blowing on the horizon: VTOL Electric Flying Cars.
If there is a better combination of buzzwords than that, I don't know what it is.
But anyway, in April, a startup called Lilium made a successful first test flight of its Electric Flying Car. Now, it is hiring execs from Airbus and Gett(a ride-hailing company) to expand its operations.
The plan that Lilium has is pretty ambitious. From the images, it looks like a 5 seater, self driving VTOL(Vertical Takeoff and Landing) vehicle. It has small rotors on its wings that point straight down while taking off/landing, and forward while cruising. It has a top speed of 300 km/hr(although I don't think they have tested it at that speed yet), which would be 5-10x(depending on the traffic) the speed of practically traveling in a car. Lilium plans to work with other companies to create a ride-hailing service for its vehicles.
Lilium also seems to have a good plan for ensuring safety. The engines are small, and independent. So if one fails, the aircraft won't come down. It's the same with the batteries. Small individual batteries instead of one big battery. Also, if all else, fails, the aircraft will have a parachute to bring it down safely. The cabin is water-proof in case the aircraft comes down over water.
My thoughts on flying cars
Flying Cars would improve Transport in Cities
The first thing that flying cars would affect is the human ability to move. To commute. Even in most low population countries, the big cities are full of traffic jams. On the other hand, countries like India have miles long traffic jams even with only ~5% of the population owning a car. There's no way India will be able to handle traffic if say, 50% of its population owned a car.
But something like flying cars could definitely meet that demand. Aviation could probably move around 10x the traffic that road vehicles do. This is because aviation has a third dimension(the vertical dimension) that it could handle the load in. The only big requirement would be to have enough air traffic controllers(and at that point, they would have to be automated).
Flying Cars could make Cities Bigger
Related to the first point, the biggest factor that limits a City's size is its ability to move people around. If commuting times become too high, people just move inside the city, or get a different job. And commuting times are significantly lengthened by traffic jams. Its not that cars can't cover a lot of distance in a small amount of time. Its the fact that they have to do so together with thousands of other cars on a single roads that makes them slow.
But if you can travel without facing traffic, it would mean that there would be very few other things that would limit a City's size. Cities could grow by 2x if flying cars took off(pun intended).
This would also exacerbate the ongoing global migration from rural areas to cities. If you can live in the cheaper suburbs, while still having the ability to commute to the business district/city center in a reasonable amount of time, it makes a lot of sense to move to the city.City mayors should be cheering for flying cars.
Flying Cars sound like a better idea than underground roads
While Elon Musk's idea of creating underground roads with boring machines is more practical and (probably)easier to implement, it seems like the long term solution would be to use aviation. With underground roads, you are creating the same thing that already exists, with all of its problems, just under the ground. On the other hand, flying cars are a solution that would scale much,much better with future transport demand.
In conclusion, I believe flying cars could handle an exponentially more number of people than cars, would be a boon for the development of mega cities, and would urbanize humanity more than perhaps any other technology.
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Nice article. When self driving cars first started to come out I told my wife "watch, once they become mainstream we will have a lot more people moving out of the city and living upstate (NY) since they will be able to just relax and read the newspaper or go on their iPads during the commute". I thought that with that innovation, not having to be stuck in traffic from eastern Long Island into NYC that a lot more people would start to move to less populated areas especially if you can take a nap while your car is driving you to work. I know if I had that option I would trade in my 5BR house on a half acre on Long Island (~$450,000USD) for 5+ acres in upstate NY or Pennsylvania and a nice log cabin homestead while still being able to work as a Nurse and Professor in either NYC, or any of the other tri-state area city/university's. Flying cars I feel like sounds great but where wil they all land? You will still need the 2D space for parking it if you own one unless they go strictly tide-hailing but at that point, with only 5 seats/passengers, would it have a use outside of a city? What I think would be cool if they just changed the highway system and put in another level of lanes for self driving cars and maybe buses. Idk. Seems cool but looks like it would be hard to manage a lot of them. I am still into the self-driving car idea, I wouldn't mind living two hours outside NYC and sleeping my way to work 😎
Thanks for reading :-)
Well, depending on the range of these things, they could literally land on the rooftop of almost any building. So you could literally land on top of your office. I think the VTOL capability is what really makes this specific flying car pop. The only reason you would need extra infrastructure is if the range wasn't good enough and you had to charge after every trip.
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
- Mahatma Gandhi
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