- cross-posted to:
- technology
Alef Aeronautics’ ‘Model A’ has a driving range of 200 miles and a flight range of 110 miles. The company plans to start delivering cars by late 2025.
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You know what it also is? A purely theoretical 3D rendered vehicle that doesn’t exist.
The company, founded in 2015 by Dukhovny, Konstantin Kisly, Pavel Markin, Oleg Petrov in Palo Alto, California, has been test driving and flying the car’s prototype since 2019.
“The constraints were: it has to be a real car (driving in driving lanes, parking in parking spaces), it has to have a vertical takeoff (otherwise it is not a real flying car), it has to be affordable for most people (not just the rich),” Alef said.
The following year, the first sub-scale prototype was built, and in 2018, the first full-size “skeleton” took to the skies.
It’s for real this time. Whether or not it will be a Tesla lemon, time will tell. But the FAA is generally EXTREMELY safety-conscious.
Cool, wheres that footage?
Guess we’ll see. I don’t have 300k to throw away getting one.
I remember a video we watched in an engineering class back in the early 2000s about a guy who was making “flying cars” that were tested and “flyable”.
They still don’t have a practical prototype.
There’s a suspicious lack of real photos and video of this soon-to-be-ready vehicle that’s set to ship to consumers in just 2½ years. Surely they’re not still in the very early R&D phase, right?
The best actual photos I can find is of an oversized drone with a basic frame the size of a car, a “cockpit” in the middle that will barely fit 1 person, 8 propellers where the entire “car” would normally be in a car, and some light-weight foam side panels slapped on. No car engine or car wheels (except some small castors to roll it around).
Along with the (paraphrasing) “it’s supposed to be a slow-moving vehicle while on the ground” comment in the article, I guess they’re building a big drone with a small lawn mower motor to move you around on the ground.
What could possibly go wrong? (everything)
There are strict rules about flying. If it is an airplane then you need pilots license, which involves a lot of training. I’m comfortable with someone who has a pilots license having one, but it isn’t easy to get a pilots license and you need to follow strict rules of where you can fly. Large parts of most cities have complex rules on where you are allowed to fly, so most trips will not be practical in the city as you can’t get close to where you want to go.
Either that or it is an ultralight, which doesn’t need a pilots license, but has strict rules on where you can fly (no cities, or something like that), and even stricter max power rules, also pilot only no passengers.
Either way, it is only practical if you are a farmer, fly to inspect your fields, then fly to the nearest ‘big’ city for shopping. (Big city may be 30k people). The slow ground speed and limited flying area makes it a toy for most people, not 'practical transport .
The above assumes that it actually goes on sale, that is not a scam.
If it works then I can see it being used how you say. I’m … skeptical (at best) that it will work though.
It looks like it’s a giant quadcopter with wheels and a car shaped shell. It’s hard to believe it has the lift to lift multiple people anyways…
I’m betting on ultralight. And toy for rich people, not for practical use.
Maybe lazy rich people will want one so they don’t have to get off the plane or out of the car when traveling. Between a state or two.
Will you also need a pilots license to purchase? I wonder where you would even be allowed to transition from driving to flying…
If you drive too far forward in a parking space and grind on the parking block, or someone dings your door, do you need an A&P to repair it?
What about insurance flying low over populated regions? Air traffic control? I don’t think the physical flying capability is the problem with flying cars
It’ll probably use VFR rules, like a helicopter. I’m thinking the target is rich guys who eventually get pilot licenses.
Driving down the highway, hit a traffic jam. Don’t even slow down just go airborne over the jam.
Aside from the $300k price tag, sadly….
The car will be a Low Speed Vehicle, meaning it won’t go faster than about 25 miles per hour on a paved surface. If a driver needs a faster route, they will be able to use the vehicle’s flight capabilities, according to Alef.
People’s driving senses are so fucking bad, I can’t imagine them flying. It’ll be in the news often I guess “car crashes into building while trying to back up.” “car flies into power lines thousands without power” well I guess that’s fairly typical already.
What the hell is the point of a car that can’t do more than 25 mph? This thing can fucking fly, but it’s as capable as a golf cart on the ground?
I’ll believe this when it actually exists (the thing they’re promising, not a skeletal prototype), and I’ll believe that the FAA is cool with flying cars when I see them on my commute. None of this currently passes the bullshit check.
I imagine that it’s supposed to be flown and is only temporarily used on the ground. Same way airplanes don’t have a higher ground speed
Airplanes have a plenty high ground speed. They gotta go pretty dang fast for take off. ;)
Lol ok true, I meant more of a maneuvering at speed. Even then, thinking about it my analogy is terrible :/
K well there are a few key differences between cars and airplanes… If planes could drive around on the road, nobody would buy a car. That’s kinda the whole goddamn point, that’s why people want a car that can fly.
I take issue with a “flying car” that’s not a fucking car. What the hell is the point? If you’re spending $300k, why wouldn’t you actually become a pilot instead of buying some half-baked car that isn’t actually usable as a car?
I think it’s mostly an expensive toy. They made it VTOL so it does not have to go fast enough on the ground to become airborne. That’s ok, it doesn’t need a runway to take off, but VTOL is way to make things fly that really have no business flying. Airplanes have a certain shape because they have to. This thing looks like a bar of soap in comparison. I’m sure it uses a ton of energy to stay airborne, it would have the glide coefficient of a rock.
This is a ridiculous comment. Are you intentionally missing the point? Why are you applying airplane design principles to a car? It’s not a plane…it’s a car.
Glide coefficient? In what scenario do you imagine this car gliding? Do you see wings? They didn’t “make it VTOL” because they couldn’t design a functional airplane, they designed it as a VTOL from day one because a flying car that isn’t VTOL capable wouldn’t be viable. The very concept of a flying car is based on VTOL. It can only work as a car if it’s VTOL. A fixed-wing flying car would be asinine, where the hell do you expect people to take off?
Look I am not a supporter of this thing. It has too many glaring issues, like the fact that it doesn’t currently exist. You cannot, however, criticize this vehicle based on its merits as an airplane, because it’s not an airplane.
You ABSOLUTELY can criticize it as an airplane. It’s a vehicle that flys. And as a VTOL, it doesn’t have much if any of a glide coefficient like deaconblue said. Which is extremely relevant if power goes out and instead of being able to glide to safety, it just falls like a rock on whatever is below. Saying “its a VTOL, so it doesn’t matter” puts you on the same safety standards as that submarine guy.
Okay, then I’m going to criticize you as an airplane. You’re a fucking piece of shit airplane, dude. You don’t even have wings, what the fuck are you doing? You can’t produce thrust, you can’t generate lift, what good are you as an airplane? Get outta here, stop wasting everyone’s time.
See how fuckin’ stupid that was?
Yes, there is an inherent risk associated with aircraft that cannot glide. What’s your point? Cars can’t have wings, it simply isn’t viable, so what do you propose? You want them to design a car-shaped object that can magically glide without wings? Think about it for more than a second and you’ll see the issue there. What you’re suggesting cannot exist within the currently-understood laws of physics. In order for flying cars to become reality, there is a certain level of risk that must be accepted.
Saying “its a VTOL, so it doesn’t matter” puts you on the same safety standards as that submarine guy.
You don’t know a fucking thing about me, so how about we steer clear of character assumptions? Maybe show me the courtesy of just arguing facts on this one?
That guy knowingly and intentionally broke all of the rules. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m not suggesting any rules be broken or any safety standards be forsaken, I’m simply pointing out that you cannot judge this concept based on a fundamentally different type of aircraft.
It’s a vehicle that flys.
Ever seen a fuckin’ helicopter? Hot air balloon? Blimp? Turns out there’s more than one way to get and remain airborne. Think…
Your name is well chosen. I think you just wasted a lot of time essentially making the same points I did.
Reading comprehension has always been a struggle for you, I take it. It does not matter how it compares to an airplane, because it is not an airplane. It’s not a boat either, you imbecile, do we need to dissect that one as well?
yes. flying cars have existed already. basically they’re treated like planes.
“Approved by the FAA” is overstaying things a bit. The only thing they were approved for was testing; there’s a lot of road (pun intended) between that and certification.
BREAKING NEWS! Flying car piloted by CEO Jetson Bankroll and 5 others crash into the Empire State Building! Over 2000 people reported dead or injured, passengers still missing and efforts to find them in the rubble are underway.
I bet these will sell like NFTs, and be just as useful.
I don’t even trust people in the current two dimensions they drive in, why in the fuck would I want them in a third dimension. Seems like a bad idea.
People can barely drive in 2D, let alone manage 3D travel
It’s also the first flying car (fully electric!) to kill 15 people when it crashes into a duplex.
Yeah, no way that thing is real.
People can’t navigate safely in two dimensions, and y’all want to add a third?
I’ll just leave this here…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fcWOivJ6bsDrunk drivers in these are likely to cause another 9/11 out of incompetence
I thought we were done beating the dead horse of flying cars.
Every 3-4 years, for at least the last 25 years, the WSJ has run a story like this where someone has finally solved all the problems of flying cars. Lots of people throw money at them; nothing ever happens. If you give two seconds of thought to the horror that would result with thousands of people rising into the air every morning to make their commute, you’d realize how absurd this notion is.
