alt Hacker NewsWe have these things called helicopters, they are already made small enough for single occupants and have been for decades. Making them electric and automated doesn't make them less of a helicopter with all of the issues of existing helicopters.
For instance, I will never have any desire to risk the air traffic clusterfuck of hundreds of EVTOLs with different computers from different brands with different levels of maintenance trying to land/take-off in a Costco parking lot to grab a rotisserie chicken on their way home from work.
It isn't a technology problem. EVTOL only makes sense where helicopters currently make sense.
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Multiple smaller rotors does seem to have a powerful simplifying ability due to redundancy and the much better responsiveness it offers.
Generally though I agree with you. Plus it will always use WAY more power than a wheeled vehicle, and have much worse failures.
Electric helicopters come with the advantage that they’re much simpler to maintain surely.
I would think the most likely use for evtol (assuming, for the sake of argument, that whatever sci-fi technology needs to be invented will be invented to make it cost effective) is autopilot flights that are currently long commutes with a lot of traffic -- ie: Suburbs to city center and back, or long cross suburb trips.
Your last sentence is simply not true. Helicopters are massive in terms of volume and weight, and incredibly loud. You're also assuming our current layout of everything would stay the same. Imagine if teleportation existed, do you think cities, towns, and suburbs would still look the same?
A collision is less likely in 3D than in 2D, and obviously the chicken would be delivered to you via drone rather than the inverse.