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    You Won’t be Getting in a Flying Taxi Anytime Soon
    Futurology

    You Won’t be Getting in a Flying Taxi Anytime Soon

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    17 Comments

    1. Devolutionator on

      These companies do not understand the business they should be in – shipping. No human is ever going to be comfortable getitng in one of these things in an elevated height above population.

    2. TheTexanOwl on

      Hello, this is an article I have written diving into why eVTOLs, often marketed as flying taxis, are never going to take off as a piece of mass mobility. While they might look shiny, there are a number of technical and logistical limitations that prevent vehicles like these from ever becoming a mainstay of urban transportation. I hope you enjoy it. Here is a Substack link if that is your style: [https://open.substack.com/pub/thetexanrhino/p/you-wont-be-getting-in-a-flying-taxi?r=3xsebk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false](https://open.substack.com/pub/thetexanrhino/p/you-wont-be-getting-in-a-flying-taxi?r=3xsebk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false)

    3. PumpingHopium on

      bro I first have to make sure I and my family are able to eat tomorrow lmao

    5. Gothwerx on

      The idea that many places currently have to crowd fund air ambulance services, but these companies think that the best use of this technology is to help rich people avoid traffic to get to meetings quicker.

      I know people have wanted flying cars and jetpacks for decades, but I think the closer we get to that being a reality, the more obvious it gets why it shouldn’t be reality.

    9. roofbandit on

      All cool future things will be financially gatekept and denied to the bottom 95% of humanity. Cures for diseases, anti aging, lab grown organs, personal robotics

    10. ScottOld on

      The UK government was planning to use these as shuttles between airports, which might work, as its set routes and a lot of airports are too close to fly between but too far away for other transpkrt methods so it’s may work here

    11. TuckerCarlsonsOhface on

      Oh, you mean taxi drivers aren’t going to be allowed to operate a damn helicopter? So weird, I totally thought regular people were going to be given the ability to fly around the city.

    14. oh_my_account on

      We can’t drive in 2d, 3d would be a complete disaster, so yeah, please, let’s not get flying cars.

    15. Cantinkeror on

      Just another tech fantasy being sold by those who stand to gain significantly (then parachute out). If they were really interested in efficiency, they would make Teams (or Zoom) work better (no insult, they work great, but talk about cost/benefit… moving our ever increasing asses around is expensive!).

    16. Starblast16 on

      The main issues I see with flying cars is that cities will have to deal with air traffic.

    17. beerion on

      I definitely agree with the overarching theme. There’s almost no world where 10,000 of these things will be buzzing over Manhattan. The logistics just don’t make sense.

      However, these types of aircraft don’t need to replace public transit in order for them to make sense.

      Joby’s “immediate” plans (within the next 5 years or so) is to scale up to 500 units per year in production. That’s enough to support a global fleet of 5,000 aircraft (assuming a 10 year service life).

      [I can make the case](https://riskpremiumresearch.substack.com/p/joby-valuation), right now, that that plant alone could value the company in the $20 billion dollar range.

      And a fleet of 5,000 aircraft isn’t a lot. There are 600 cities, globally, with a million or more people. If those 600 averaged 8 aircraft per location, thar would get you there.

      So yes, you’re right that the penetration of these types of aircraft isn’t going to be nearly as high as many hope (i think JoeBen recently said he thinks the global fleet will reach in the millions lol). But the potential of these companies, in terms of valuation, will be a lot higher than you expect, imo.