Can we please stop talking about flying cars?
Monday, 7 March 2016 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carose59Whenever You See A Dog On A School Playground, You Know That He Has Been Placed There By Order Of The Head Beagle!*
-:- -:- -:- -:-
There aren't going to be any flying cars.
This isn't a matter of technology; it's a matter of money and logistics. Have you ever seen the way people drive regular cars on the road? They don't stop at stop signs, and they speed up at yellow lights. They get into the lane with the big lighted arrow telling them to merge into the lane next to it, then expect you to let them in. When you're stopped at a light—you in the right lane and them in the left—they pull up so far that you can't see to make your perfectly legal right-on-red turn, even though they aren't going anywhere until the light changes. They stop on railroad tracks and swerve around railroad crossing bars. They ignore school busses with their STOP arms out. They tailgate you when you're driving "too slow"—that is, five miles over the speed limit. They don't turn in the turn-only lane, and they make left turns where there's no turning allowed. Also, you're a fool if you don't check both ways when crossing a one-way street, because they go any way they want to on those.
Now, think about airplanes. Since there are no signs or lights or things up there, we have air traffic controllers to give some order to what planes do. Airplanes file flight plans. I'm betting professional pilots behave better than most drivers, but they still can't be left to their own devices because, again, no signs or lights or anything. Somebody has to tell them when there will be other planes in their flight path. Even assuming most drivers would pay attention, who do you think is going to do that for the flying cars? Who do you think is going to pay people to do it?
I know, it's this fantasy you have when you're gridlocked on the interstate, just levitating your car above everyone else and zooming away. But the reality would be everybody doing that, it would be chaos, there would be accidents, property damage, injuries, deaths. A flying car accident could easily take out pedestrians or other drivers on the ground below. And what kind of traffic police do you think there would be? Not to mention, what do you think your car insurance would look like? Even bad flying, what would happen if your flying car just stopped? You wouldn't be able to coast to the shoulder of the air.
So can we please not talk about flying cars anymore? Cars on the street are bad enough. Cars in the sky would be an even bigger, more unmanageable menace
*Snoopy
-:- -:- -:- -:-
There aren't going to be any flying cars.
This isn't a matter of technology; it's a matter of money and logistics. Have you ever seen the way people drive regular cars on the road? They don't stop at stop signs, and they speed up at yellow lights. They get into the lane with the big lighted arrow telling them to merge into the lane next to it, then expect you to let them in. When you're stopped at a light—you in the right lane and them in the left—they pull up so far that you can't see to make your perfectly legal right-on-red turn, even though they aren't going anywhere until the light changes. They stop on railroad tracks and swerve around railroad crossing bars. They ignore school busses with their STOP arms out. They tailgate you when you're driving "too slow"—that is, five miles over the speed limit. They don't turn in the turn-only lane, and they make left turns where there's no turning allowed. Also, you're a fool if you don't check both ways when crossing a one-way street, because they go any way they want to on those.
Now, think about airplanes. Since there are no signs or lights or things up there, we have air traffic controllers to give some order to what planes do. Airplanes file flight plans. I'm betting professional pilots behave better than most drivers, but they still can't be left to their own devices because, again, no signs or lights or anything. Somebody has to tell them when there will be other planes in their flight path. Even assuming most drivers would pay attention, who do you think is going to do that for the flying cars? Who do you think is going to pay people to do it?
I know, it's this fantasy you have when you're gridlocked on the interstate, just levitating your car above everyone else and zooming away. But the reality would be everybody doing that, it would be chaos, there would be accidents, property damage, injuries, deaths. A flying car accident could easily take out pedestrians or other drivers on the ground below. And what kind of traffic police do you think there would be? Not to mention, what do you think your car insurance would look like? Even bad flying, what would happen if your flying car just stopped? You wouldn't be able to coast to the shoulder of the air.
So can we please not talk about flying cars anymore? Cars on the street are bad enough. Cars in the sky would be an even bigger, more unmanageable menace
*Snoopy