Who would feel comfortable getting inside a self-driving flying taxi?
NO … eom
Philippines Contextual Reflection: Like an airborne jeepney taking to the skies, Ehang’s approval hints at an airborne future for transportation in the Philippines. Yet, one green light in China does not mean Manila’s chaotic highways will soon be replaced with utopian airways. The road towards this technology’s widespread adoption remains long, with regulatory and infrastructure hurdles to overcome. While Ehang’s autonomous air taxi may not yet herald a Jetsons-like reality, it chips away at the future, carving out a niche in the heavens for innovation. For now, Ehang shows what could one day be, kindling hope that the Philippines too may join this journey to futuristic mobility. Hope to ride one of them someday.
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As an anxious yet curious human, I’m not sure if I’m ready to hitch a ride in a back-flipping, barrel-rolling flying taxi just yet! 
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I should probably have shared this …
It’s still WIP, but I welcome feedback
Are you comfortable sitting on a plane? Then you’ll do fine in a VTOL 
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@Eric wow! What a gold mine of information about flying cars! Did you make this slide deck? If so, for what purpose?
@David I think you might find this slide deck interesting! It isn’t quite rockets but they are related!
Well, for Arrowair 
How else am I gonna help the only hardware DAO I could find, other than putting my VAs to make slides 
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Very cool! How far away do you think VTOL’s are? I imagine the main hurdles now are regulatory, no?
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This is such a well detailed deck! Thanks for the share!
Ahah it’s just version 1, I’m not super happy with the design yet, so feel free to give feedback.
@Alex I’m no expert on VTOLs (yet!) But yea, I’d say it’s all regulatory, and probably a bit of reliability, as nobody wants to risk dying like that
My guess would be 5 to 10 years before it’s common, but it will start in niche applications like medical emergency, or shuttle transports etc.
Probably 20 years before we see them everywhere
A cool problem I didn’t think about before was the noise! If we start having air taxis everywhere, we don’t want them to be as noisy as a helicopter, so lots of people are working on reducing the noise pollution. Joby made great progress on that 
As a former Commercial Pilot, plenty of folk wont even get in a piloted plane
Good point! I’d probably give it a go but I am the risk-taking early adopter and always feel outnumbered so it’ll be interesting to see if it ever takes off
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Lets see how we go with driver-less cars first I reckon. Before introducing a 3rd dimension into the equation. Most pilots get paid crappy money so its a long way before a AI controlled, human-carrying drone will a thing
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The day autonomous drones whisk travelers through the skies without a pilot will be a momentous leap for aviation, but we must walk before we can fly.
The latest in regulation in the US (and it’s a positive note!)
As a commercially trained pilot, who has flown at 200kts, it is no easy task. These new rules proposed sound nice but are really an accident waiting to happen. Flying is far more dangerous if you get it wrong, that’s why they have high standards for pilots.
@duncdad what about this then - https://theaviationist.com/2024/04/18/ai-flew-x-62-vista-during-dogfight/
I’m all for trying new tech, but sheesh this would get the heart going. Still think we have SO long to go with self-driving cars and reducing the need for car parks; in the city centers of core cities with urbanized areas with over 500 thousand people, the median percentage of land dedicated solely to parking was 26%
interesting to see if it ever takes off
Underrated pun
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I suspect the sky is a much easier problem to solve than car self-driving, the sky doesn’t have pesky humans on phones…