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Flying Cars!
The Cabl3 Guy
Elite Ranger
in Zocalo v2.0
[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=96&ncid=96&e=1&u=/space/20040818/sc_space/futureflyerspushingforwardforpersonalaircraft[/url]
Flying cars in 2009 maybe Zemeckis wasn't to far off!
Flying cars in 2009 maybe Zemeckis wasn't to far off!
Comments
[B]there is no greater design tool than the human mind [/B][/QUOTE]Except maybe a computer powerful enough to set the Singularity in motion. :p
[url]http://www.moller.com/skycar/[/url]
[B]Except maybe a computer powerful enough to set the Singularity in motion. :p [/B][/QUOTE]
ah, but what was it that conceived of that computer?:p
[B]Y'know, it occurs to me that flying cars would be a security nightmare. Cars at least have stick to roads, at least in general, and roadblocks and tire strips can be set up. With flying cars, on the other hand, you'd basically have to just follow them until they land somewhere, or drop out of the sky into a building or crowded park or something. It'd make a great getaway vehicle, provided it didn't need a runway to land or take off. Should be interesting to see what methods law enforcement organizations develop to deal with them. [/B][/QUOTE]
I've got one word for you: AIM-9 :D
talk about chaos. If we go to flying cars we sign away our rights to fly them in built up areas. I fear that only a droid pilot is going to be able to cope with preventing humungus crashes.
I much prefer the idea of a hybrid system, where you drive your car locally, but when you want to pull a decent length journey, say 100 km, you tootle off to the nearest 'skyramp' and enter what is effectively a freeway in the sky by taking off. When you get close, you take an offramp and land within a click or so of your destination.
Only in the worst of emergencies should anyone take off from a suburban street.
As far as law enforcement goes, I think an electronic leash on most vehicles would do the trick, if you do something stupid, they point a signal at you and your vehicle drops to the nearest safe point where you can be issued with your random taxation/fine.
When someone goes totally psycho, and has bypassed such features... yes... welcome to a brave new world of air to air missile armed cop cars. Perhaps we can develop an EMP warhead which gives the occupants of the targeted vehicle half a chance at survival.
I just got a great visual in my head of cops firing a 'bug missile' at an offending car. The missile strikes burying its head into the panels on the vehicle and half a dozen doors open in the missiles flanks and out pops a dozen or so little mechnical spiders.. who promptly climb all over the car disabling and re-routing different systems to gain control of it, while the occupants try destoying the little beggars with a shotgun without damaging thier car anymore than it is...
kinda like a benign version of matrix sentinels
[B]I much prefer the idea of a hybrid system, where you drive your car locally, but when you want to pull a decent length journey, say 100 km, you tootle off to the nearest 'skyramp' and enter what is effectively a freeway in the sky by taking off. When you get close, you take an offramp and land within a click or so of your destination.[/B][/QUOTE]
Actually sounds a bit like the traffic systems in the second Back to the Future movie...
Jake
[B]
I just got a great visual in my head of cops firing a 'bug missile' at an offending car. The missile strikes burying its head into the panels on the vehicle and half a dozen doors open in the missiles flanks and out pops a dozen or so little mechnical spiders.. who promptly climb all over the car disabling and re-routing different systems to gain control of it, while the occupants try destoying the little beggars with a shotgun without damaging thier car anymore than it is...
kinda like a benign version of matrix sentinels [/B][/QUOTE]
That reminds me more of minority report. with the little spiders walkin around.
[B]kinda like a benign version of matrix sentinels [/B][/QUOTE]
Oh, they [i]start[/i] as benign, but then...
[B]I seem to remember some car in Midnight Club that had two turbofans in its rear. Ignoring the cost, something like that along with a morphing geometry and deployable control surfaces could work, could it not? [/B][/QUOTE]
Ignoring the cost is a big thing to do, but doing it...I wouldn't
expect the masses using flying cars in my lifetime. Try to get a multi-engine pilot's license and then picture millions of things flying in the sky in close proximity. Not a fun thought.
[B]It's not going to happen at all without some fairly impressive auto-pilot systems and a government who is willing to take the risk. [/B][/QUOTE] Thats true & knowing our government anything that says liability is not worth the risk.
[B]It's not going to happen at all without some fairly impressive auto-pilot systems and a government who is willing to take the risk. [/B][/QUOTE]
Forced autopilot mode in high-traffic areas, you enter the destination, the autopilot gets you there.
Of course we don't have the required tech at the moment, but who knows what kind of things we'll have come up with in 20-30 years.
[B]Forced autopilot mode in high-traffic areas, you enter the destination, the autopilot gets you there.[/B][/QUOTE]
You'd still need a pilot's license, for the times when you can't use autopilot or the autopilot fails. Getting one isn't cheap and isn't always easy.
[list]
[*]GPS for location finding/route planning.
[*]Radar or something else for detecting other vehicles close by
[*]a computer
[/list]
if you have a central traffic control system, you might also scrap the radar thingie, if every car logs into it, and the GPS is sensitive enough.... Would only require every car to be outfitted like that...
[B]I've got one word for you: AIM-9 :D [/B][/QUOTE]
Hell in the 5th element they just started blasting away with the 4 forward mounted machineguns.. I mean talk about LEO's taking no crap from people!
Ah he stole a car, GUN HIM DOWN!!
[B]Well, the tech for the autopilot should be available right now.
[list]
[*]GPS for location finding/route planning.
[*]Radar or something else for detecting other vehicles close by
[*]a computer
[/list]
if you have a central traffic control system, you might also scrap the radar thingie, if every car logs into it, and the GPS is sensitive enough.... Would only require every car to be outfitted like that... [/B][/QUOTE]
Yes, it could be done today. But not one advanced enough to handle any problems at all. Without safeguards in place for when, say, the vehicle goes into a spiral dive, it won't happen.