[semi-extrinsic]

Meh.

The US is somehow singularly incapable of implementing decent public transport. Thus venture capitalists are throwing stupid amounts of money at exotic technology that could potentially alleviate some of the problems arising from this stupidity.

First we had the "full" self-driving cars and robotaxis coming any day now. Then there's Musk's attempts at tunnel digging and Hyperloop that have gone nowhere. And now eVTOLs that will go nowhere.

It's kinda fun to watch from afar though.

[dsego]

Don't worry, EU has money to throw around on stupid projects as well. Even worse, it's public money.

https://seenews.com/news/croatias-rimac-to-get-200-mln-euro-...

[semi-extrinsic]

Oh sure, and countries in Asia as well, we don't hesitate to join in on these things.

I'm just saying, if you trace these ideas back to their original motivation, it's the lack of decent public transport in California specifically and the US generally.

[kiba]

Roads required public money to build though.

[chiefofgxbxl]

Besides the high-tech hype, there's also the economic absurdity behind all these proposals. The average American household already spends 1/6th of its income on (car) transportation. These VTOLs are cars on steroids, with even more modes of failure and imaginably more regulation. I assume they would do a ride-sharing / taxi business model, but even then... the average person won't be able to afford a ride in one of these because the average American can't even keep up with ordinary car payments.

It's depressingly comical to see these futuristic pitches when the reality is there won't be any customers left because the middle class will be completely gone in near time. People need to have money in order to spend it.

[nradov]

All air taxi services are targeted toward affluent customers, not the middle class. That's just the nature of the industry. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad business plan — Ferrari does pretty well targeting those customers. But even if the industry is viable that doesn't mean Lillium will succeed.

[kiba]

The US is somehow singularly incapable of implementing decent public transport. Thus venture capitalists are throwing stupid amounts of money at exotic technology that could potentially alleviate some of the problems arising from this stupidity.

With trains you don't need self driving cars!

Rather, why don't we imagine a differently configured society? If you have streetcar suburbs, then it's possible to have a lot of last mile delivery delivered by light rail.