this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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When will news media stop falling for this shit?

Oh, yes, when it stops generating clicks. I am part of the problem.

all 45 comments
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[–] [email protected] 51 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

I've seen plenty of working flying cars since the late 90's.

Word to the media: don't bother us with this shit until they have a working idea on how to monitor and regulate the shit so we can all have flying cars and not just one dude's stupid prototype. The hard thing isn't making a car that can fly. That shit is relatively easy. The hard part is figuring out how air traffic would work if everyone was up there. It's already a PITA and there aren't a helluva lot of planes compared to cars.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I’ve already seen how ordinary people drive in two dimensions. Three dimensions is an impossible ask.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I always find it amusing when sci Fi games with flying cars have them still driving in imaginary floating highways, it's like they know they would regulate it into 2D autopilot sky roads somehow

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

We've basically done that with flight patterns for aircraft in busy areas right now, so it makes sense.

[–] 9488fcea02a9 5 points 4 days ago

So now we have to look both ways AND up to make sure some moron doesnt drop a car on my head?

Fuck that noise...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Whenever someone talks about practical, real-life flying cars, regulation is the first thing I think about, too. How will they be sure that some dipshit isn’t texting while flying over a school?

[–] anindefinitearticle 4 points 4 days ago

Word to the media: don't bother us with this shit until they have a working idea on how to monitor and regulate the shit so we can all have flying cars and not just one dude's stupid prototype. The hard thing isn't making a car that can fly. That shit is relatively easy. The hard part is figuring out how air traffic would work if everyone was up there. It's already a PITA and there aren't a helluva lot of planes compared to cars.

If they're all automated and coordinating, NASA has put a lot of effort into researching how to coordinate a swarm of airborne agents with diverse goals.. I'd imagine that these prototypes have gotten further development and a reality-collision as drone systems have been deployed and evolving in the Ukrainian theatre. The tech for this might actually finally be ready.

[–] Reverendender 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Unfortunately, we don't monitor and regulate things here in the US anymore

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Unless the thing in question is an immigrant

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

We do; but only gays, blacks, trans people, immigrants, and women.

[–] Reverendender 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

And disabled people, and people with mental health needs.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 days ago

Naw, we don't regulate that. We would have to actually think about them first.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

I've seen plenty too. They fly over sometimes. I believe they are called "helicopters".

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Calling this thing a "real life flying" car is generous. This thing just looks like a mock-up at best and it didn't appear to even have a driver/pilot during the demo.

This thing will be bad in the air and bad on the ground.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

It looks like how I drew cars when I was 5 years old (who am I kidding, it would probably still look like that if I attempted to draw one today).

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Please no flying cars. Please no. The jetsons made it look cool, but that was a cartoon made in the days before 9/11 and cell phones happened.

Now imagine some distracted driver, watching a tiktok while driving, and oops, they did another 9/11.

Now imagine that happens every week. Not because of terrorists, but because of idiots! WE HAVE A LOT OF IDIOTS IN THIS COUNTRY!!!!

......please no.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Cars crash into buildings all the time. Even if you took the largest consumer car and “drove” it as fast as possible into the side of a skyscraper, you wouldn’t be able to cause anything close to another 9/11.

That said, these are terrible for other reasons.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Pfft, whatever. Gasoline can't melt steal beams.

[–] Imgonnatrythis 4 points 4 days ago

Why would you assume these would be driven? This looks like a Hollywood special effect reel from the 1950s. We are close to having fully autonomous vehicles already. Any practical application of this couldn't happen for at least another 20years. If we are still driving our own vehicles by then we are all pretty fucked already.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

In fact we have the largest strategic reserve of idiots in the world! Even our president is an idiot!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

It's a lightweight 3d printed exoskeleton of a car using drone like motors and fans. The journalist who went in person was not allowed to be close or watch someone get in or out of the vehicle. While in air it is pretty obvious there is no interior seating just what looks like 2 large fans on the bottom. To call this even a concept of a flying car is incorrect at best it's a custom drone.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

America can't have 4-wheeled road-legal flying cars. 4-wheeled road legal cars must have airbags, but airbags are forbidden in aircraft.

EDIT: I stand corrected.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Airbags are not forbidden in aircraft. They just haven't been considered to offer enough safety benfit for their weight and cost in most cases. That is starting to change though, and airbags integrated into aircraft seatbelts are becoming more common. They can be found in first class in a number of commercial aircraft, and are sold to be retrofitted into private planes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane_airbags

https://www.amsafe.com/product/airbag-restraint-systems/

There are many reasons I doubt this car will make it into commercial production, but the airbags will be OK.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

TIL. I was regurgitating what I saw in a video a while back about the Switchblade, which was supposedly 3 wheeled because of the airbag thing.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 1 points 3 days ago

Easy, just eject them when you take off, and inject them when you land.

[–] smuuthbrane 18 points 4 days ago (2 children)

If that's a "real car" then my left testicle is a genuine mild Italian meatball.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

now that's a spicy meatball

[–] smuuthbrane 4 points 4 days ago

Only if I use the mint soap.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It’s a big ass drone with a car shape 3D printed over top of it

[–] smuuthbrane 1 points 3 days ago

Precisely. A golf cart is more genuinely a car.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The last thing we need is flying cars, even if they do get a proper pilot's license. You don't exactly get air brakes while in the air, and at least in the USA, recently Elmo Turnip decided to cut flight safety...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

All the more reason for flying cars in the US:

  • No flight safety

  • So expensive only the rich can afford them

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

I hear ya. Up until the rich end up crashing into everyday poor neighborhoods...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

Ah there we go

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago

I saw the article before somewhere on my newsfeed and didn't click on it. Until we get some kind of new type of technology, flying cars will always be planes or drone that kinda looks like a car.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

the safety of the actual car is good enough for consumers

This is a revealing statement.

[–] Reverendender 3 points 4 days ago

That statement is good enough for you

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

I've seen kites that looked more convincing. There are now some real, functional flying cars, although they are still far too expensive to be practical. This is not one of them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)
  1. When I was a kid I used to think it would be cool to have flying cars. As an adult I think about all the jets and helicopters and drones that already fly over my home and how annoying they are. The amount of noise of a fleet of cars taking off out of the neighborhood would make in the morning would be absolutely unbearable.

  2. Looking at the underside of this "car" shows there are no drive axles, wires or motors going to the wheels, making it just a weird-shaped helicopter with wheels for no reason.

  3. This video looks very fake. Were there no witnesses in this demonstration?

  4. As others have already mentioned, regulations. Air traffic is tightly-controlled, and for good reason. There aren't really any technical limitations to flying cars. Shit's just dangerous, especially by unqualified individuals and en masse.

  5. There's no way this thing survives any sort of crash test.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Ha, it's total crap. I watched video news about it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Someone's 3D printer at home did some serious overtime there.

[–] 9488fcea02a9 3 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Then, how about posing just a screeshot in a shitpost group or similar?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

I can see it's little gocart tricycle wheels from here ahahahahahahahahahahahaha