I suspect they'll be self-flying, or have heavy autopilot overrides to avoid going where they shouldn't. We'll see, but the FAA Drone stuff that has hobbyist pilots up in arms could be a pathway forward for automated flying "drone" cars.
The amount of complexity in automation you are talking about is mind boggling. Joe public have no clue what goes into the automation of aircraft or the complexity of air traffic. The sky seems really simple until you get an idea of everything that goes into making sure aircraft don’t hit each other, fly into mountains, the dirt, or into thunderstorms. Winds change constantly, fog, mist, icing conditions, turbulence, bird activity, military activity, wild fires, etc. there is an infinite number of variables to deal with when flying.
Then you start talking about safety aspect of the aircraft. Minimum fuel reserves, system failure procedures, engine failure procedures, loss of GPS (happens A LOT), loss of ground based navigation, instrument failures, software bugs (again happens A LOT) I could go on and on.
Aviation is extremely safe because we have spent decades perfecting flying and you have to have intelligence to be able to interpret all the data coming at you. It’s going to be a long while before an AI can safely automate all of that.
So Uber Air is in the future?
Flying cars is the future, we just need to get it through the deep state firewall.
The idea of flying cars terrifies me from a safety aspect as a professional pilot.
I suspect they'll be self-flying, or have heavy autopilot overrides to avoid going where they shouldn't. We'll see, but the FAA Drone stuff that has hobbyist pilots up in arms could be a pathway forward for automated flying "drone" cars.
The amount of complexity in automation you are talking about is mind boggling. Joe public have no clue what goes into the automation of aircraft or the complexity of air traffic. The sky seems really simple until you get an idea of everything that goes into making sure aircraft don’t hit each other, fly into mountains, the dirt, or into thunderstorms. Winds change constantly, fog, mist, icing conditions, turbulence, bird activity, military activity, wild fires, etc. there is an infinite number of variables to deal with when flying.
Then you start talking about safety aspect of the aircraft. Minimum fuel reserves, system failure procedures, engine failure procedures, loss of GPS (happens A LOT), loss of ground based navigation, instrument failures, software bugs (again happens A LOT) I could go on and on.
Aviation is extremely safe because we have spent decades perfecting flying and you have to have intelligence to be able to interpret all the data coming at you. It’s going to be a long while before an AI can safely automate all of that.