Comment by walrus01 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by walrus01 | Hacker News Reader

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having helipads on top of tall buildings in manhattan has been tried:

https://thepointsguy.com/news/when-helicopters-landed-on-man...

It did not work out so well...

On May 16, 1977, the landing gear failed on a Sikorsky S-61L (N619PA) while it was taking on passengers on the roof of the Pan Am Building. The aircraft fell onto its side. Its spinning principal rotor blades killed four passengers waiting to board (including movie director Michael Findlay) and injured a fifth. Parts of a broken blade fell into the streets below, killing one pedestrian and injuring another. The accident precipitated the permanent closure of the heliport.[11]

Luckily there haven’t been any technological advancements in aviation or computation since May 16, 1977.

Do we really need to review the list of recent autonomous vehicle fails? Really?

Are you conflating land vehicles with air ones? Because autopilot flies more hours than pilots in 2022.

Between airports, long distances, on well-known routes. That is a very different problem than autonomous air taxis.

(And it's not like autopilot is full automation. You still need a pilot.)

How frequently do you think commercial air liners have to dodge a cellphone tower at cruising altitude?

Much economic success rides on security.

Are companies really going to put the C-suite in one of these, given the parade of potential horribles?

I'd say "yes", once the idea is proven and the kinks are sorted.

Computation, sure. Aviation? Not really: helicopters today are not much different from those in 1977, and not much safer either. When they crash (and they do), it's just as bad as this 1977 crash.

what’s the incident rate per trip though? 3 accidents over the course of a couple decades might or might not be substantially different than other forms of transport, especially after considering the improvements mentioned by sibling.

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