Comment by ng-user | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ng-user | Hacker News Reader

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> 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.

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