• Red_October@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The vehicle, certified for airworthiness and flight-tested over 170 hours with more than 500 takeoffs and landings, is now headed for mass production.

    Jesus fuck please tell me that’s a typo and they left some zeros off. Your average commercial pilot has more than that before any airline is even willing to consider hiring them, that is absolutely not sufficient testing.

    Still, early adopters may face bureaucratic turbulence. Potential buyers must be both licensed drivers and certified pilots.

    No shit. And that is never going to change, becoming a certified pilot is a lot fuckin harder than getting a driver’s license, and for very good reasons. If some BMW-driving cunt can’t even be arsed to use his turn signal do you really want to ease the “bureaucratic turbulence” just so he can fuck up and crash into a packed airliner? These things still have to use runways, the people flying them still need to know how to behave themselves at airports, how to identify and avoid restricted airspace, how to communicate with ATC and how to behave if (let’s be honest, when) they get Intercepted.

    And all of this so you can have a car that’s worse at being a car, and an airplane that’s worse at being an airplane, but hey at least you won’t have to book a rental car at your destination airport, which I remind you they still have to use.

    • ChillPenguin@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      As long as they’re only using smaller airports. Let the millionaires and billionaires have this. It’s like another ocean gate scenario.

      I agree with everything you’re saying though haha.

    • Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf
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      2 days ago

      I still don’t get how these companies keep getting funded. There’s literally no way these things will ever become a thing. It’s simply ridiculous.

      • Red_October@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Investors and venture capitalists fronting money and riding the Hype-Go-Round, but when the music stops and the lights go out someone’s going to be out a shitload of money.

      • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        I’d be willing to bet if you put a calendar reminder in one year to check back on this you’d find that this car did not actually reach the mass-produced stage of industry.

  • Fleur_@aussie.zone
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    2 days ago

    Oh just like they did 5yrs ago every 5 years since the invention of powered flight

  • Epzillon@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Apart from all the discussion regarding how stupid this is, how the fuck would this even fit on a road? I doubt the wings would be durable enough if they were retractable. This shit would take up 2 lanes and fuck up any and all intersections. And as a added bonus, it would fuck with everyone elses perception who are used to the distances you keep away from regular vehicles when theyre turning in front of you. This shitheap wouldnt even make it to the airport because someone will probably misjudge the turn radius with the wings and fuck it up on the way there.

    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
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      2 days ago

      They fold to the rear. So apparently they are - at least supposed to be - durable enough.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    2 days ago

    So it’s a small plane then?

    I swear I saw this on TV like 20 years ago, it’s a stupid idea, if I wanted a plane I would buy a plane and then drive to the airport in my car, attempting to combine the two technologies just makes both of them worse.

  • thatradomguy@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I’d rather have a FLDSMDFR. Sorry not sorry. People already drive like ass on the road. I don’t need that in the sky.

  • HakunaHafada@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    I feel like “mass-produced” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Also, insurance is going to be insane.

  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    At Shanghai 2025 car show, there were at least 5 flying car models from major auto players.