It's here at last, I knew it was coming!

[Duchunter]

So I'm watching the news this morning and they announced the soon to be released "Kitty Hawk Flier", the first consumer flying car that flies on a quad rotor platform. I knew this was coming. It's just the next logical progression in quadcopter technology. I don't know why it's taken this long. With what is available now it's almost idiot proof. There is no reason we shouldn't be flying to work in our quad cars. You can pretty much take the human out of the equation and have the computers fly. The passenger quads can all be situationally aware of its surroundings and perhaps every flight could be logged and updated to a central database so that no two quads are in the same space at the same time. Flying a passenger quad could be safer than driving on the ground. The advantages are perhaps global in there scope. Flying from point A to point B in a straight line is obviously the fastest way to get there. I imagine quads will require a hydrogen fuel cell to make it viable and we can all make our own hydrogen at home with solar cells. No more fossil fuel vehicles, no more hwy infrastructure, no more traffic jams. In 50 years were all gonna look back and laugh at how archaic traveling on the ground in our equivalent to a steam engine power machine. Quads are gonna change the world, sit back and watch.

 

[Duchunter]

The motors on their prototype were not big at all. About a third the size of a washing machine motor. It was a surprisingly small machine to lift a human plus itself into the air. I was impressed. A passenger quad doesn't have to go very fast. When you travel in straight lines in the air at 30-50mph you'll beat the fastest Ferrari to the same location every time and your less likely to crash. Quads don't typically just fall out of the sky and you can build so much redundancy into the systems that a crash would be almost unheard of. If they can make hundreds of drones dance together, inches apart then they can make every quad within a set distance aware of each other's destination, location, heading, speed, and elevation and make sure no 2 quads are in the same place at the same time. The technology is already here to do all of this, people just have get educated about the tech and it needs to be affordable. I think you could probably mass produce passenger quads for the same or less than the average cost to produce low end luxury cars.

 

[KongWerks]

I think the company says that they will only fly them over water and a maximum of 15 feet high. If that's correct... Not sure that it speaks well as to how far along they are to actually producing them. Hopefully they dont use the DJI programming team for their software.

I think "flying cars" are a long way off from reality and practicality for general use. The video had a CGI feel to it.

 

[BigAl07]

It's not a quad. The drawing I saw posted had either 6 or 8 motors.

I don't think it's going to be as good as we had hoped. Only flies a few feet off the ground which means no "straight line" flights except in some desolate areas.

 

[Duchunter]

I thought that just the prototype was setup to fly strictly over water. I could be wrong. They didn't give a whole lot of info........ I don't know, I think flying cars are closer than we think. There is nothing stoping it from happening now other than regulation. The teck is here. All someone needs to do is put it all together. Intelligent flight systems are just about full proof now. You may crash your quad but it's never gonna crash itself. Keep the human input to an absolute minimum and the teck will do its job. Every flight would be a way point mission. All you is launch and sit back till its time to land and you can do that with a tap to fly like system. Just point to where you want to land. Let the teck fly and it will not fail except in some unforeseen manor and that will rarely happen. I've crashed my quads hundreds of times but there never crashed themselves. They always do exactly what I say but I'm just telling it where to go, it's figuring out how to process my input and how to manipulate each props speed to move the quad the way I'm asking it to go. I couldn't possibly keep it in the air without a computer doing the real work. I don't fly quads, they fly themselves. I'm just telling it which direction to go in 3 dimensions.

 

[Duchunter]

It's not a quad. The drawing I saw posted had either 6 or 8 motors.

I don't think it's going to be as good as we had hoped. Only flies a few feet off the ground which means no "straight line" flights except in some desolate areas.

The prototype I saw was a quad rotor. Six rotors would be safer since you can fly on 5 if one motor fails.

 

[Paul Schulze]

Consider morning rush in a city with a population of a million or more. All those straight lines everywhere - straight lines crisscrossing at multiple altitudes. That nut who used to drive 90 in a 65 zone, now changes altitude at high speed right into another flight path and crashes, falling on some kitds waiting for their flying bus. This nut figured a way to override the safety system so he could fly free style. He used to do the same thing with his P4 - fly it at restricted areas, etc.

This all sounds silly, but it will happen. We have a long way to go before this will become reality.

 

[dirkclod]

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[John Locke]

Kitty Hawk is way behind Ehangs 8 motor quad for humans. This Ehang will fly with 4 motors. I expect these guys to have the best product initially, when it's released.

 

[dirkclod]

The way I like to push my battery's I ain't got no Business
in none of em.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Kitty Hawk is way behind Ehangs 8 motor quad for humans. This Ehang will fly with 4 motors. I expect these guys to have the best product initially, when it's released.

Wow almost looks scary,,,not sure I would want to sit in that,,,I wonder if it got parachute

 

[Nerak_Girl_UK]

That EHANGS one pictured is literally the stuff of my dreams in the 90's. I did a school project and my drawings were (are in my Mum's attic?) identical. Freaky sh!t. I'm liking this I haven't got up to speed with humans being able to go in quads but I think I will now!

 

[John Locke]

Here's a photo I took of the Ehang concept craft in January at CES. Notice it's a two seater.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Here's a photo I took of the Ehang concept craft in January at CES. Notice it's a two seater.

View attachment 81208

Ha that looks lot safersomeone to hold when going down,,,those motors must have some go,,

 

[John Locke]

Ha that looks lot safersomeone to hold when going down,,,those motors must have some go,,

The worrisome part is they claim it will be controlled with your iPad! Oh man, I hope that's just a flight programmer, like the Go app, which is not essential to actually fly the craft safely to the ground.

 

[Paul Schulze]

People don't like drones flying overhead, do you really think that they're going to stand for these flying overhead? It's going to really take some attitude adjustments.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

People don't like drones flying overhead, do you really think that they're going to stand for these flying overhead? It's going to really take some attitude adjustments.

Yip very good point,, it would sound like a electric Cessna aircraft ,,Yeh wouldn't want to have app crash or a crash mid air,,,the air police are on there way....

 

[Duchunter]

The was looking at the Ephang 184 the other day. I haven't seen the 2 seater until now. I guess it's the 284. Honestly I think that flying won't be to bad as long as a human isn't doing it. If you link every car up together and let software route, plan, and fly the car then I think it will be extremely safe. You won't see traffic like you do on the road because your commute time will be decreased dramatically and there will be no traffic jam to back cars up prolonging their time in route. If you fly from point a to point b you won't be in the air nearly as long as you would a car. The Ephang is completely autonomous. No human flys it. It basically does a way point mission. I don't know how it lands but I imagine it will use a "tap to fly" like system where it hovers over the landing area and you just tap which spot to land in. As long as some jack leg can't take control of it and drive it like a sport bike then I think it will work. To be a viable means of transport a very strict set of protocols will have to be in place that insures safety for everyone which starts by taking the human out of the equation.

 

[Joe Glenn]

Kitty Hawk is way behind Ehangs 8 motor quad for humans. This Ehang will fly with 4 motors. I expect these guys to have the best product initially, when it's released.

I was just about to say wait a min. The Ehang is WAY beyond that thing on floats. I guess the guy that made the post never heard about this one.

 

[Joe Glenn]

The motors on their prototype were not big at all. About a third the size of a washing machine motor. It was a surprisingly small machine to lift a human plus itself into the air. I was impressed. A passenger quad doesn't have to go very fast. When you travel in straight lines in the air at 30-50mph you'll beat the fastest Ferrari to the same location every time and your less likely to crash. Quads don't typically just fall out of the sky and you can build so much redundancy into the systems that a crash would be almost unheard of. If they can make hundreds of drones dance together, inches apart then they can make every quad within a set distance aware of each other's destination, location, heading, speed, and elevation and make sure no 2 quads are in the same place at the same time. The technology is already here to do all of this, people just have get educated about the tech and it needs to be affordable. I think you could probably mass produce passenger quads for the same or less than the average cost to produce low end luxury cars.

they could also put a ballistic chute on it like the Cirrus SR22 and SR 20 has, as a last resort.