Wise people will just answer the question. Wankers may demand details, which are hidden by the spoiler box below. It’s up to you.
[spoiler]The other night, while playing poker with one Li Shufu, I was distracted at a crucial moment by an ad for a Mila Kunis movie. Or possibly a Natalie Portman movie. Actually it might have been a Keira Knightly movie. I’m never really sure which is which, and anyway that’s not the point. The point is that I lost the hand and ended up owing Li eleventy jillion dollars, which nine jillion more than I had with me.
Ordinarily I would have handled this by an immediate welshing, hasty retreat, and cold-blooded murder, but Li was surrounded by armed bodyguards who for some reason were pointing guns at me. Wounded by his lack of trust, I opted to quit his company, but not before agreeing to [del]hand over my flying car to be reverse engineered[/del] license certain exotic technology which has recently come into my possession by entirely legitimate means.
Anyway…the point is that in 2014 Volvo will be releasing aflying version of their C70 convertible. It looks exactly like the current version, and in roadable mode it operates exactly the same except that it gets significantly better fuel economy. (Exotic engine invented by Reed Richards, don’t you know.) But the flying C70 also has an anti-grav lift and propulsion mode. When that’s activated, it is capable of performance in the air roughly capable to that of a Piper Cherokee. Its autopilot is capable of flying the plane completely on its own if need be, so if the driver wishes he or she can simply input a destination and hit the engage button, and the flying C70 will then take off, fly to the destination, and land. Volvo plans to sell it for a million bucks a pop, but that price will come down within a few years.[/spoiler]
What regulations would you like to see in place for this vehicle when it comes on the market?
Oh, and stop waiting for the poll. There isn’t one. I shudder to think what a poll would look like in this case.
It would have to be a much more vigorous exam! Truth be told, I don’t think it should be opened up to the public unless you don’t actually “drive” them, just program in a route and let the car take you there itself. You only drive when it touches back down.
Imagine what drunk flying car drivers would do, let alone the sober ones that are just distracted, stupid, or otherwise assholes. Nope. Let Google come up with the automatic car (I think they are working on it) and then we’ll put these into motion.
I think flying cars should be strictly limited to carrying no more than 2 radar guided missiles, 4 heat seeking missiles, and one 30mm cannon with up to 3,000 rounds of ammunition. An armed society with flying cars is a polite society with flying cars.
You’re a madman. The additions you suggest would significantly reduce fuel economy, something we cannot afford given the current energy crisis. Moreover the cannon is going to significantly throw off the car’s balance. Lastly, it will be impossible to put the top down with the missile launcher on the roof.
That’s what they said to Galileo when he proposed mounting 25mm plasma-propulsing sabot slugthrower, but who’s laughing now, and who’s gelatinizing on impact?
Nah. Cannon hangs underneath the axles, for easier aiming. Just point the hood ornament at the asshole that cut you off and squeeze the trigger.
Never mount missiles on the roof. The rocket motor would scorch the paint job. You mount them on the sides, and eject them away from the car/plane before the rocket motor lights.
I am not in charge of this venture and frankly hope that it goes so far awry that Li is reduced to utter poverty, forced to dance in the street for pennies to support himself. That said, I think the modifications you suggest are ill-thought, as the car would then be illegal to possess in many US states. Also Great Britain. Possibly Japan too.
Okay serious answer? Altitude is controlled by computer for all domestic commutes and is unalterable. It is controlled and monitored with communication to all other air traffic to ensure nobody is colliding. There isn’t any reason for that at all, and yet it occasionally happens with trained pilots fer Og’s sake. Air car merge lanes will be built onto all major highways at reasonable junctions. Air cars may not fly willy nilly into city zones and land unless there is an air car lot or designated portion of lot for them inacessable to normal traffic. Upon entering a city zone auto pilot is engaged and cannot be overridden without sending an emergency alert to police, who shall treat it like a 911 call. Auto pilot will engage when air cars are within 1 mile of proximity from each other and take offs and landings in city zones. Air car doors and windows are sealed and locked while in flight, override summons police.
Biometric locks and controls, no authorized user or police key, no move. If this requires a dead man device to disable the vehicle, then so be it, and have insurance treat it like a windshield replacement: free of charge to replace the fuse/ circuit/ card/whatever.
Do you mean controlled by the onboard computer, or by some centralized system?
How practical is that? Once the cars’ price comes down below $500K, I mean.
Works for me. I see no reason to allow them to fly in city limits, though I predict the police forces of large and prosperous cities (both of them!) will have a small aircar fleet used in very annoying ways.
That’s gonna be the easiest sell of anything you’ve mentioned. I don’t think you’d be able to get people to buy the hovercars without it, frankly.
I could be a total bastard and ask which Piper Cherokee - the Cruiser? The Warrior? The Dakota? But I won’t.
Speaking as someone who is actually licensed to drive cars on the road AND fly actual Piper Cherokees… well, in “road mode” I’d say an ordinary car license would suffice (well, OK, I’d like the regs tightened on those, too, but we’re not talking about the impossible here, right?). If all you have is a road license no flying unless on the totally automated autopilot.
If you want to be let off the autopilot lease, then get a private pilot license. Yes, it’s more study and more effort than getting an auto license, but at least in the US it’s within the capability of the average person, should they want it.
The biggest problem, of course, will be human idiocy. In particular, “Piper Cherokees” have limited weather capability. There will be issues with people who want to fly their cars when really it would be much safer to stay on the ground, or even in a tightly locked up garage.
Most likely by onboard which can communicate with any other aircar that it encounters. I image as numbers grow a centralized hub may become necessary.
Fairly practical I think, After all an air car doesn’t take up much room in the sky at any time. As the vehicles come within broadcast distance of one another they exchange directional information and make adjustments as necessary. As numbers grow, routes will be planned out to eliminate random flights intersecting major paths. Or pleasure flyers and non standard paths will fly higher than route commuters.
Nevada has already made it legal for ground cars to have robotic controls. Air cars are much simpler. If the air car is already designed to be fly by wire it could practically be implemented as an iPhone App.
Volvo’s are boxy, I want something with some style! When’s those other stylish stainless steel cars coming out, I think they’re called Balorians? Anyways, I think the onboard computer should talk to a central air traffic control for destination and traffic congestion management, but also talk to other flying cars directly for collision avoidance.
Really, Oakminster, a dual set of phased plasma rifles in the 40-watt range mounted in the grill of the car should be sufficient. There’s tremendous weight savings, no messy heavy ammo and ordnance to worry about, and battery packs are hot-swappable!
You need a pilot’s license to fly one. Given the severity of a crash (ie, cars falling out of the sky and landing on people’s homes) the punishment for flying a car without a proper license is harsh: a year or two in prison, even for the first offense. No mitigating circumstances will be accepted. Flying while drunk, in addition to prison time, means that your car-flying license is revoked permanently.
Because of the way airspace is set up, I don’t see any way around requiring at least a Private Pilot license. Either that or change our entire air travel system, and good luck getting the FAA to cooperate with that.
As for the autopilot issue, I’m skeptical of the idea of a completely autonomous system that requires no user input apart from a destination. I don’t know what technology we’re talking about here, but the demands of weather alone would seem to make it unlikely. Even using WAAS augmented GPS guidance (which is accurate to about three meters), I don’t see how a system could autonomously land at the many non-towered airports in the U.S. and elsewhere. There are too many variables. I’m willing to be convinced, but I don’t see it happening even with some of the changes coming down the pike such as ADS-B.
The closest thing to what you’re talking about is TCAS, which I think (I’m sure I’ll be corrected if wrong) picks up the transponder signals from other airplanes. Not vulnerable to hacking, though I supposed jamming could be a problem.
