Comments on: Commuter Reflections http://www.pointedstick.net/colter/2007/01/25/547/ the further adventures of the luckiest bastard you ever saw Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:45:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Kristin http://www.pointedstick.net/colter/2007/01/25/547/comment-page-1/#comment-6350 Kristin Fri, 16 Feb 2007 23:24:51 +0000 http://www.pointedstick.net/colter/journal/2007/01/25/547/#comment-6350 For us to have flying cars, we would need taller buildings. Let's get there first. For us to have flying cars, we would need taller buildings. Let’s get there first.

]]> By: heath http://www.pointedstick.net/colter/2007/01/25/547/comment-page-1/#comment-5515 heath Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:47:55 +0000 http://www.pointedstick.net/colter/journal/2007/01/25/547/#comment-5515 I'm not certain flying cars would necessarily triple the potential for accidents. Even assuming less-than-total freedom of movement, the number of possible positions a car can occupy in a three-dimensional space is so large compared to the number of cars that the chances of collision should go <em>down</em>, rather than up. For instance, even if the FAA didn't monitor thepositions of commercial aircraft all the time, they still wouldn't collide very often in flight, simply because the sky is so large. Then again, now that I think about it the danger is probably more in colliding with obstacles than other cars. Like, say, the ground. Anyway, any sane engineer wouldn't let people fly these things at all — everything would be automated. You would get in the car and let it know your destination, and then the car would take off automatically and merge onto a skyway. As you neared your destination, either the car could negotiate for a landing permit with a landing computer hosted by Wal-Mart or whatever, or it could set itself down on a public lot and let you drive the last few blocks as if it were a regular car. I’m not certain flying cars would necessarily triple the potential for accidents. Even assuming less-than-total freedom of movement, the number of possible positions a car can occupy in a three-dimensional space is so large compared to the number of cars that the chances of collision should go down, rather than up. For instance, even if the FAA didn’t monitor thepositions of commercial aircraft all the time, they still wouldn’t collide very often in flight, simply because the sky is so large.

Then again, now that I think about it the danger is probably more in colliding with obstacles than other cars. Like, say, the ground.

Anyway, any sane engineer wouldn’t let people fly these things at all — everything would be automated. You would get in the car and let it know your destination, and then the car would take off automatically and merge onto a skyway. As you neared your destination, either the car could negotiate for a landing permit with a landing computer hosted by Wal-Mart or whatever, or it could set itself down on a public lot and let you drive the last few blocks as if it were a regular car.

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