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by nradov 55 days ago
No, it can't take off and land on your suburban lawn. The wires and trees overhead would make that ridiculously dangerous, a last resort only for emergencies. Plus they need to recharge for the next flight. These e-VTOL aircraft will operate from dedicated pads.
1 comments
ericd 55 days ago
Just talking about what they've talked about as goals in interviews. And I'm surprised you're willing to make definitive statements about my lawn, we have a large enough area with none of those obstructions you're talking about, we live on a few acres. And if it's running 20 miles here and there, it can do a few trips before it needs to go somewhere to charge or battery swap. That would cover our trip to our nearest international airport.
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nradov 55 days ago
If these e-VTOL aircraft get used for air taxi service at all it's going to be for short hops in denser urban areas. Not in rural areas where people have acres of open land.
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ericd 55 days ago
Go watch one of JoeBen's interviews. His original inspiration for the company was making something that could make where he grew up in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains more accessible. His stated long term vision is vertiports embedded in communities. In the short term, I agree that they're going to start in denser areas.
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nDRDY 55 days ago
I don't understand how that would be possible with the lack of anywhere to land in denser urban areas. This is a toy to hop over to the golf course.
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flextheruler 55 days ago
Does your lawn come with an air traffic control tower?
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ericd 55 days ago
Heh it doesn't have to be literally on one's own lawn, it could just be a little helipad per community. And my understanding is that the vast majority of private helipads don't have air traffic control - your hospital's roof doesn't have its own air traffic control. Pilots operate under "see and avoid" rules.

Use your imagination a little. So much status quo bias here.

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nDRDY 55 days ago
Who would want to privately own a community helipad? Sounds like an insurance and liability nightmare.

This is an impressive enough achievement, but let's not kid ourselves this is going to revolutionaise suburban or semi-rural transport. Its maximum payload weight (450kg) barely covers 5 passengers with no baggage. It's for hopping from the country club to the golf course.

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