The noise regulations part does make a difference, as this is significantly quieter than a helicopter.

That remains to be heard. The electric motors might be marginally quieter than current helicopter engines but ultimately the rotors still have to move the same amount of air.

In addition to ameister14's point, OP was also pointing out that you can glide to land on little to no power, where as a helicopter can't do that.

Glide where? This aircraft seems to be targeted toward moving people relatively short distances around dense areas. If you're in a city, look around. How many suitable emergency landing sites do you see with a large, flat, open area without nearby buildings, overhead power lines, or trees? If it loses power at low altitude it's not going to be gliding very far no matter what.

And as others have pointed out, helicopters are perfectly capable of autorotating in case of power loss.

> emergency landing sites

Well, there's beaches near some coastal cities that afford survivable landings, but may be risky for others.

Last year there was a tragic case near Lisbon where two people on the ground died. It was a flight lesson with an experienced instructor, who followed protocol and landed on sand at the water's edge. (My understanding of the discussion at the time was that hitting water with fixed landing gear is an almost certain death sentence for the plane passengers, because it flips over instantly.)

Unfortunately, without power, the pilot missed a more deserted stretch and ended up in a section of the beach with quite a few people enjoying the summer at the seaside.

One of the reports in the Portuguese press: http://observador.pt/2017/08/02/avioneta-despenha-se-na-prai...

Any large street could probably work well?

A helicopter can survive a complete engine out at any point during appropriately chosen flight regimes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_height%E2%80%93ve...

In my layman understanding: the heuristic amounts to - at low altitudes you flare and cushion, and at high altitudes you enter autorotation.

Helicopters have a mechanism called autorotation which ensures safe(albeit sharp) landing when the engine fails.

Helicopters can autorotate which isn’t as efficient as a glide but will still get one down safely.