Comment by matte_black | Hacker News Reader

Comment by matte_black | Hacker News Reader

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Personally I'm not convinced. I wish we could just skip the self driving car phase and go straight to personal self flying drones.

Less edge cases to deal with, and since most people are not pilots the drone must be 100% automated, turning it into something more like a horse-drawn carriage from days of old. Since air traffic is more tightly controlled they do not have to compete much with piloted aircraft. No pedestrians to worry about, minimal possibilities for accidents. Flying away and parking somewhere away from your location is not just a feature – it's mandatory since our world has no accommodations for consumer aircraft parking. Since most landings can be done on the rooftops of tall buildings, it's conceivable that we may reduce the amount of time we spend walking on dangerous or dirty streets, and also opens the door for more creative skyward architecture and retail. And of course there's the magnificent views you'll get of a city even in a boring daily commute.

I will probably not own a self driving car given current technology, but I can't wait to see the age of true flying transports for the masses.

> Less edge cases to deal with

I believe this is wildly inaccurate.

We already have the infrastructure for self-driving vehicles. How do you handle a mechanical failure of your personal flying drone? Does it drop you to the ground or on a group of pedestrians nearby? This surely only increases anxiety of people walking below. What is the recommended height for a self-flying drone? 100's of ft above ground? Not to mention there are no drones (to my knowledge) that can legally transport a human today in 2018, how long until we develop/regulate that technology? (I understand it's the same with self-driving vehicles but we've been working on this for _years_ already and things have improved significantly in that time period)

While I like your outside the box thinking, I disagree with the notion that there are less edge cases than self-driving cars, at minimum it's on par with the same amount of edge cases as self-driving vehicles.

I also believe there are far more edge cases to deal with: specifically the edge of the blades on the propellers.

Whirling blades with an engine powerful enough to lift and transport a human plus cargo whizzing through downtown areas, and everyone owns one? It only makes sense in sci-fi movies.

If your drone fails catastrophically such that it no longer has enough working propellers to land safely, then you crash and die. Simple as that. The same can happen in a vehicle, or any other aircraft. In the end, the loss of life amounts to somewhat of a handful of people. No worse than car accidents which kill people daily and all the time.

Recommended height? It's already laid out, just look at aeronautical maps.

The technology will come. What we require is more battery density and perhaps better materials. Prototype drones for human transport are already out there.

It is certainly a lot less edge cases. But again, when it comes to aircraft people seem to exaggerate dangers and make it seem like a big deal. Aircraft are safer than cars when you know what you're doing.

Because humans also don't currently fly drones to get around, you don't have to deal with all the human cultural and behavioral quirks that come with traffic. Good luck with your self-driving car on India's streets.

I have come to believe that by the time self-driving tech is truly viable at level 5 autonomy, personal drone transports would have long been viable before that.

Driving a horse-drawn carriage fast and safely takes more skill than driving a modern car. Pulling a carriage isn't a natural behavior for horses. They have to be carefully managed. It takes a fine eye and careful touch developed over years of experience.

Very few tall buildings can accommodate aircraft landing pads. There isn't space due to HVAC machinery and antennas, plus they weren't designed to support extra weight.

I find this a really interesting concept but really hard to pull off on a big scale.

First of all I thinkg battery energy density will have to multiply a few times.

Traffic will have to be actively monitored 24/7 to avoid collisions, avoid vehicles going through no-fly zones.

Crashes would also be a lot worse, possibly crashing into houses, schools, hospitals.

Not trying to be overly critical, just a fun thing to think about.

Flying requires more energy. In a world where energy efficiency is only increasing in importance, that's a big problem.

Also, if everyone is commuting to work by landing on rooftops, then streets will no longer be dangerous: rooftops will be because they will be crowded with drones dropping off thousands of people.

Flying cars will never see the light of day as a mass transportation option over land. The noise is far too great. Given the way in which cars already take away from the human experience of moving through the world, imagine how much worse that would be with cars + drones always on top of you.

I'm not convinced about self flying drones either, we should just skip to teleportation.

Personal self-flying drones won't happen unless the technology becomes near silent (compared to now), meaning different technology will need to be developed before this happens.

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