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A comment on Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire. Parent comment

Re:Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire by ainiriand on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:25AM (#17566557)
Everything looks impossible until someone does it. And keep in mind that flying is actually safer than driving. Yes, if you have an accident the odds of being lethal are increased but keep in mind that it is not the same kind of flying. 10000m vs 100m and the speed is also different. Have you ever looked at the fatalities in commercial flying in the early 30s? Better systems were implemented and it is perfectly safe now. So even if there is still a long way to go, someone has to walk that way and take the rewards.
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Re:Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire by oblio on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:45AM (#17566753)
Commercial flights are super safe because there's a million regulations to follow. An airplane costs $100 million or so and is flown by a super trained crew.

How is that going to be replicated for $20k cars?

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Re:Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire by ainiriand on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:56AM (#17566861)
When commercial aviation started the regulation was really loose. There were not even a consenus on how to report accidents, how to tell the root cause, etc... We face a similar problem with flying cars. Can they be used as safely as standard cars are used? I think the bar is that low. But we should push for more and learn from mistakes done in road safety, like the need of humans to control your capacity to drive. Yes, it is going to be hard, but is going to be done eventually.
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Re:Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire by detaro on Thursday July 19, 2018 @11:00AM (#17566899)
I'd think "flying cars" would clearly fall under existing aviation rules. Those aren't as strict for smaller aircraft/private use as they are for commercial airlines, but there's still a regulatory framework already.
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Re:Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire by ainiriand on Thursday July 19, 2018 @11:07AM (#17566991)
It would definitely make sense as a starting point. But it has some specific use cases that would require specialized regulation. Anyway, someday this will become a reality and we will see if the rules fit.
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Re:Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire by krageon on Thursday July 19, 2018 @12:20PM (#17567770)
For private use the laws where I am are much stricter (and can be broadly summarized as a "short whitelist of places where you can fly").
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Re:Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire by detaro on Sunday July 22, 2018 @04:42PM (#17588826)
True. I should have specified that I was thinking more along the lines of safety regulations etc., where generally General Aviation is less strictly checked.
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Re:Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire by dageshi on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:54AM (#17566841)
It probably won't, it might be replicated by million dollar automated flying taxi's though?
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Re:Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire by oblio on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:59AM (#17566894)
Could be. Isn't automated flying even harder than automated driving? After all, it's not going to be military drone flying with no obstacles, we're talking about flying and landing in an urban environment.
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