frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

I Test Drove a Flying Car. Get Ready, They're Here

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/cars/i-test-drove-a-flying-car-get-ready-theyre-here-257b0ecf
21•thm•1h ago

Comments

dopamean•1h ago
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there's basically no chance that flying cars become a meaning part of life in America in my lifetime (I just turned 40).
burkaman•1h ago
I agree with you, but keep in mind that's probably what 40-year-olds in 1903 said about planes after hearing about the Wright brothers. Sometimes things do actually change.
cpmsmith•41m ago
If we assume this means "in the next 50 years", they wouldn't be totally wrong. You could make the case airplanes were only on the cusp of being "a meaning[ful] part of life in America" by 1953 – planes only overtook trains for domestic US travel in 1955, and 1957 for trans-Atlantic.

https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/stories/commercial-aviati...

strangattractor•37m ago
Reminds me of how Popular Mechanics use to alternate between Flying Cars and return of the Blimps issues.

Scott is a sport pilot enthusiast and approached the evaluation from that perspective. I don't think there are many pilots, myself included, that believe we are on the verge of flying cars for mass transportation. They are expensive to purchase, maintain and impractical for many reasons.

klipklop•25m ago
I agree. In the US I have seen simple regional public transportation projects take decades and they are still not complete. A single on/off ramp (literally a quarter mile of road) will take 5 years.

There is just no way a public flying car infrastructure can be built in the US in the next 30-50 years you are alive.

Eisenstein•1h ago
Does 'flying car' have its own FAA designation? My assumption is that it would fall under the already existing aircraft types and require the same license to operate.
chickenbig•1h ago
It is a part 103 ultralight, according to Scott Manley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wncRFPd69rg?t=1110

JaggedJax•49m ago
Corrected link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wncRFPd69rg&t=1110
ranger_danger•1h ago
No they're not.
sbuttgereit•1h ago
This company must have some sort of marketing push underway... here's a video yesterday from Scott Manley that's basically the same thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wncRFPd69rg

aeternum•49m ago
They're one of the few companies actually delivering vehicles to customers.
dardeaup•1h ago
I hope not! There are far too many idiots driving who don't pay attention. Certainly don't need to put them in the sky.
mgr86•1h ago
I think this is a case where I simply don't know enough, but couldn't auto-pilot be a lot easier and safer when adding a new axis? A lot fewer things to run into in the air, and if you could just rise or fall a couple dozen feet to avoid an collision seems safer.
codyb•58m ago
If it's autopilot you could probably also channel the vehicles to specific routes such that they maintain a road like set of channels where they're flying so the rest of us can not worry about random flying cars zooming around our yards and playgrounds.

We already do this with planes which have corridors they fly along.

saubeidl•57m ago
Yup, there's a bunch of Chinese startups building that rn. EHang [0] is one of the bigger ones.

[0] https://www.ehang.com/

ngokevin•56m ago
Not sure about the autopilot part (even planes autopilots follow a flight path). I'm not an expert either, but with roads, there are clear lanes and markings. And ability to generally see around you, and judge distance.

Is what sets the lanes in the air are traffic controllers and flight plans? We're already short on traffic controllers. And there are already lots of near-misses (and not near-misses) even with the heavy regulation and control. Can't imagine having it as mass personal transit driven manually. There'd need to be a mass central system that controls everything, and in that case, might as well just keep it commercial

The energy efficiency isn't great either on personal aircraft

not an expert, just shooting the crap

treetalker•1h ago
Flying cars in Miami would be nightmare fuel.
strangattractor•26m ago
Imagine a simple scenario. Take your $260,000 Helix to the grocery store to pickup groceries. While you are in the store a mother fighting with her kids accidentally damages your Helix backing up the car. Are you going to hope into that thing even with what might be considered minor damage? Probably not because you would not know how to evaluate whether it is safe.

A car. You'd just hop in to determine if it is drivable.

SketchySeaBeast•21m ago
Not just after an incident, but what sort of maintenance requirements and burden will there be now? Can there be an equivalent to the beater for flying cars?
hollerith•59m ago
I hope they stay away from my home -- it's already too noisy with machines of various kinds.
atmavatar•58m ago
We're 10 years late.

The future in Back to the Future part 2 was 2015-10-21.

Now we need to get cracking on Mr. Fusion, so we can produce 1.21 GW of power with beer cans and egg cartons.

SirFatty•54m ago
I wonder how loud these things are...
calmbonsai•54m ago
Not that one. There's zero usable payload, extremely limited range, VFR only, and it's only "legal" is as a Part 103 (ultralight) exception.

This is, essentially, an aviation hobby toy and not remotely practical for anyone even doing a short-hop urban commute as they would be banned in dense urban (class B,C, and D) airspace too.

3abiton•43m ago
So basically its legitimacy and novelty is based on a loop hole? Nonetheless a cool hobby project, and usually will rally people behind this concept and we might see some excitment there.
SunshineTheCat•47m ago
Having a flying car would be nice, however I think if I had the choice which went mainstream, I would prefer a jetpack.
shantara•47m ago
The aircraft looked sleek in Scott Manley’s video, but knowing it has only 20 mile range with the top speed of 60 mph makes it a little more than a toy.
mulletbum•22m ago
60 really isn't a problem at all. I will drive a 1,000 miles going 60, if I can do it in a straight line, it would still save a large amount of time. The problem is absolutely that 20mph range. Not useful at all.
xnx•43m ago
If you want an even cheaper more yolo version there's the Jetson One: https://jetson.com/
glimshe•39m ago
Imagine this with current paradigm of forced software updates. Just the other day a bunch of cars got bricked mid-drive because of one of these.
theideaofcoffee•34m ago
Please no. Most idiots on the road can barely handle two dimensions, let alone a third.

Andrej Karpathy – Why AGI Is Still a Decade Away – HN Interview [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXUZvyajciY
1•gonzalovargas•1m ago•0 comments

Forensic analysis of ReFS journaling (2021)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666281721000342
1•p_ing•4m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Are You Potty Trained?

1•nothrowaways•4m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Apptrix.ai – an app creator for all platforms

https://apptrix.ai/download
1•andydotxyz•5m ago•0 comments

Agentic AI Is Moving from Hype to Structure

https://permit.substack.com/p/agentic-ai-is-moving-from-hype-to
1•mooreds•5m ago•0 comments

Treasury's $20B Swap with Argentina and Complementary ESF Credit Facility

https://veridelisi.substack.com/p/treasurys-20-billion-swap-with-argentina
1•paulpauper•6m ago•0 comments

Anytype: The everything app for those who celebrate trust and autonomy

https://anytype.io/
1•doener•7m ago•0 comments

More on US Pedestrian Deaths

https://www.construction-physics.com/p/more-on-us-pedestrian-deaths
2•paulpauper•8m ago•0 comments

Hospitalization: A Review

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5kSbx2vPTRhjiNHfe/hospitalization-a-review
1•paulpauper•9m ago•0 comments

Semi-artificial leaf interfacing organic semiconductors and enzymes

https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(25)00346-0
1•PaulHoule•9m ago•0 comments

Andrej Karpathy – AGI is still a decade away

https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/andrej-karpathy
4•ctoth•9m ago•0 comments

A Brief History of Rubygems.org

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/1042131/319050141553ec37/
1•jmarchello•12m ago•0 comments

Why AI Will Widen the Gap Between Superstars and Everybody Else

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/ai-workplace-tensions-what-to-do-c45f6b51
2•born_a_skeptic•12m ago•0 comments

The new science of strong materials,JE Gordon

https://archive.org/details/newscienceofstro00jame
1•akshatjiwan•12m ago•0 comments

Thou shalt not let AI run amok: Vatican wants global rules

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/17/vatican_seminar_calls_for_global/
2•rntn•12m ago•0 comments

The Can That Outlived Its Creator

https://kyytpress.substack.com/p/the-can-that-outlived-its-creator
1•shadowvoxing•14m ago•0 comments

Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy (about coding with LLMs)

https://coding-with-ai.dev/posts/ai-coding-tools-amazing/
2•codeclimber•16m ago•0 comments

Picasso painting goes missing en route to exhibition

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/17/style/picasso-still-life-guitar-missing-spain-intl-scli
1•mooreds•20m ago•0 comments

Scammers are pretending to be Elon Musk. They're stealing millions

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-spacex-neuralink-grok-xai-investment-scam-2000669248
1•gnabgib•20m ago•0 comments

Promptlet: AI Prompt Enhancement Manager for macOS

https://www.josh.ing/promptlet
3•coloneltcb•20m ago•0 comments

AE86 Electric conversion with manual transmission [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE2oDKguy3Q
1•Rumudiez•23m ago•0 comments

Exception Handling considered harmful (2005)

https://www.lighterra.com/papers/exceptionsharmful/
1•lr0•27m ago•0 comments

Is Postgres Read Heavy or Write Heavy?

https://www.crunchydata.com/blog/is-postgres-read-heavy-or-write-heavy-and-why-should-you-care
1•soheilpro•27m ago•1 comments

RFC: Reinforcement for Creativity

https://github.com/POlLLOGAMER/RfC-Reinforcement-for-Creativity
1•KaoruAK•27m ago•0 comments

Ed 26-01: Mitigate Vulnerabilities in F5 Devices

https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/ed-26-01-mitigate-vulnerabilities-f5-devices
1•TurkishPoptart•28m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: If AI makes no progress, are its abilities enough to justify valuations?

1•sendos•29m ago•2 comments

Drought's Solution: Could Seawater Be the Answer? [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGUKJz8o34k
1•ahmetcadirci25•31m ago•0 comments

We built PintPoints, a game that turns bar crawls into live competitions

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.lunafox.pintpoints&hl=en_GB
1•barathonapp•31m ago•1 comments

The Micro Shift

https://steward.ventures/micro-shift
1•Aloke•31m ago•0 comments

Free Graphic Cards for Everyone

https://idiallo.com/blog/free-graphic-cards-for-everyone
1•ambigious7777•31m ago•0 comments