from Hacker News

Uber’s Flying Taxi

by trevoragilbert on 5/9/18, 2:10 AM with 45 comments

  • by ukulele on 5/9/18, 6:19 AM

    > Use that expertise to build a tilt-rotor commercial plane.

    They have, it's called the AW609. And like its predecessor V-22, it has crashed and killed the occupants early on and is nowhere near commercial readiness.

    Uber's estimates of commercial VTOL flight on an untested airframe by 2023 is total garbage, and they have to know it. The US military has sunk $50 Billion dollars into this problem over the last 30 years and still aren't there.

    My guess is that Uber simply wants to maintain some hope of future growth, particularly with their autonomous car program in shambles.

    PS I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

  • by sschueller on 5/9/18, 6:49 AM

    The V-22 also known as the "elevator of death" [1]

    [1] https://medium.com/war-is-boring/your-periodic-reminder-that...

  • by akavel on 5/9/18, 9:06 AM

    "[Uber's] electrically powered [concept aircraft] with two rotors for vertical flight and one for horizontal flight [...] is reminiscent of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor, where the propellers transition from vertical flight to horizontal – the difference being Uber’s rotors are fixed."

    Whut the funk??!? How is this in any way similar??? Uh, correct me if I don't see something, but to me this is like saying something like: "Tesla Model 3 is similar to the Caterpillar CS-533E drum roller [1] — the difference being Tesla has 4 wheels"...

    [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_CS-533E

    I'm in no way an aircraft person, but if I were to try to look for similarities to something, the following are more like what I'd think of:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrodyne

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogyro

  • by reaperducer on 5/9/18, 3:39 PM

    Will this thing try to navigate as well as Uber's car-based navigation that occasionally tells its drivers in Las Vegas that the best route from the airport to The Bellagio is through the lobby of the MGM?

  • by Mashimo on 5/9/18, 8:35 AM

    > A private pilot’s license takes a minimum of 40 hours of flying time

    Wow, you can get a pilot's license that quick? In Germany you need 30h of driving just to get a regular car license. No large trailer or truck.

  • by joshuaheard on 5/9/18, 3:42 PM

    Why not a full-size multi-rotor automated drone that can carry 4 people and luggage?

  • by god_bless_texas on 5/9/18, 10:46 AM

    oh hell no.

    What's the glideslope of a multirotor vehicle?

  • by theothermkn on 5/9/18, 2:24 PM

    The article reads like machine- or cocaine-generated slop. There doesn't seem to be a single credible assertion in it. It has literally no point, as the author openly admits near the end of the article ("just my thoughts"), just before he closes by asking us to read his profound insights into why flying things shouldn't be heavy. This prose would receive a failing grade in a high school composition class.

    I'm trying to resist the "Why is this on HN?" question, but can't. This is appalling dreck and doesn't belong here.

  • by hndamien on 5/9/18, 6:55 AM

    My guess is that there would be no pilots. Given they are attempting to get rid of drivers, getting rid of pilots in VTOL seems like an easier proposition with a large added weight advantage.