Seen in Cambridge, MA today.

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hankjmoody@reddit

Well I'll be dipped. You spotted THE Terrefugia Transition on the road?!

They built 2, but the other one was an early prototype that looks significantly different. Unbelieveable spot, dude....

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IlluminatedPickle@reddit

It's apparently being moved to a museum on a truck. So it's just out for loading.

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markuus99@reddit

I liked the idea that someone was driving this around town and parallel parked in on the street.

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IlluminatedPickle@reddit

Imagine walking out your front door and that weird fuckin thing was sitting there. I'd definitely be waiting for the owner to come back.

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cfbrand3rd@reddit

Making this an even more extraordinary spot! And, it’s good to know it still exists!

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PoolRamen@reddit

Idly wondered what happened to the business - a story all too familiar as of late. Bought by Geely, shipped off lock, stock and barrel to China.

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floppydo@reddit

I swear I saw this thing once on the 405N between Skirball and the 101. This was at least 10 years ago. I had no idea it was that rare.

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ohno-mojo@reddit

If GTA taught me anything…you should be able to break a window, nab this thing, fly it over town, land in a lake and have a hot date by noon. Maybe that’s just my fantasy. Awesome spot!

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_SBV_@reddit

And you'll always find it in the same spot

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tomato432@reddit

this is the early proof of concept prototype, the one with the carlike nose is the production prototype

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I think there's a fly-in breakfast that starts this weekend? Somewhere on the south shore I can't remember for the life of me (but I did immediately know what I was looking at when I saw this photo - our brains work weird I guess..)

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Big-Inevitable-252@reddit

I recognized it immediately!

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FletcherCommaIrwin@reddit

I gotta be honest, even the kid in me knows that the dream of flying machines for anyone and everyone is still a ways off.

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AmosTheExpanse@reddit

Autonomous piloting will have to be practically perfect first. People have a hard enough time with the ground.

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mondaymoderate@reddit

The ground is more forgiving you crash from the sky and you’re pretty much dead. And there’s a lot of more stuff to crash into coming down.

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PolyDrew@reddit

It’s actually easier to do aerial automation. Commercial jets can fly themselves all the way down to the runway. They have for a couple decades. Add in all of the modern electronics and sensors that we have now in a new platform (quadcopter or other VTOL) and it’s an easier solution that navigating around pedestrians, parked cars, cross traffic, 5 way intersections…

With aviation it’s pretty much up, across, down. Air traffic control knows what planes are where and there are active transponders that communicate with each other. Landing pads can be marked with whatever aids the aircraft needs to help with automation.

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FesteringNeonDistrac@reddit

I used to know a guy that was a commercial pilot. He said he was there for when things went wrong. This has been a while, because he flew for Continental, but I'm sure it's the same thing now.

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PolyDrew@reddit

It is. Automation for fixed wing aircraft is much more difficult than say a quadcopter. The transition from an airliner from 500 down to 100mph is quite hard and has to be very closely monitored… not to mention the transition to the ground at 100.

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FrenchFryCattaneo@reddit

Air traffic is easy because there isn't that much up there. Imagine how easy driving on the roads would be if there were only greyhound busses. But if everyone had a flying car it would be very different.

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PolyDrew@reddit

I see your point but if it’s automated then computers can talk to each other to keep spaced out. 3D movement can be varied greatly for separation. In current aviation aircraft are separated by horizontal AND vertical space and if computers are calculating spacing there is more space to use. Airports are VERY busy spaces with movement not only in the air but on the ground. Taxiways, etc. if it were a VTOL craft that were automated then the space used is much smaller and can be used more directly without having so many points of congestion (like runway ends and taxiways).

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Horror-Raisin-877@reddit

“Up across down” is 3 dimensions, and you can a 4th dimension, weather. Driving a car is 1.5 D, basically moving along a line. It is most definitely not easier to do automation in the air.

Commercial jets can auto land if a while range of strict requirements are met, one of of which is a full trained certified crew, who are still very actively involved in managing the aircraft. They’re not flying it with the yoke, but they’d still flying it.

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FLG_CFC@reddit

I see your point, but there's still a pilot in command. Plus there's more room for all those electric sensors and computers on a commercial aircraft.

Most people are eligible for a driver's license. The same cannot be said for a pilots license. Unless the FFA let's people fly without a pilot, I think we're still a decade or so from this being an option for the wealthy. Probably two decades after that, the average person will be able to afford a flying car. Total guess. Nobody knows what the future holds.

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testing12-testing123@reddit

There are companies like Pivotal Aero that are making great strides in automating it. Unfortunately battery technology still isn't there yet for this kind of flying vehicle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F2eNmPdLBo

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FLG_CFC@reddit

Although that's not a flying car, I can see that sort of technology taking off sooner rather than later. (Pun intended) Taking the pilot out of the equation is going to take some doing, though.

Side note, as a small-time composite manufacturing specialist, I love how they left the raw carbon look on the prototype.

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testing12-testing123@reddit

Sorry for the confusion, yes its not a flying car, i posted to show automation in the aviation space.

The vehicle they are building doesn't require a pilots license and a lot is automated (or semi-automated) such as take off and landing and even flying forward is just pressing forward on the joystick.

Removing the pilot isn't the issue, making it reliable and licensable is. Its going to be a long time before the FAA lets fully autonomous passenger vehicle fly around the sky.

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FLG_CFC@reddit

It's all good. Just trying to stay on topic a bit.

I have surface level knowledge, but is that because they're sticking to the ultra-light class?

Agreed and agreed. I'm happy people are pursuing such endeavors.

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testing12-testing123@reddit

Yeah they are keeping to the ultralight class for now.

I know its not exactly the same thing as what was spotted which was awesome but i do believe it is much more feasible than the vehicle that O.P spotted.

There is also a lot of benefits to an electric power train but whether the battery technology ever gets to the point of allowing reasonable travel distance, only time will tell.

I want a flying car, i just don't know if it will happen in my lifetime.

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FLG_CFC@reddit

I agree with everything you said. It'll be cool when it happens, but I'm not holding my breath just yet.

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sleemanj@reddit

I see your point, but there's still a pilot in command. Plus there's more room for all those electric sensors and computers on a commercial aircraft.

Garmin have a general aviation solution for emergency automated automatic diversion and landing

No concious pilot required, once triggered it can do everything on it's own, declare an emergency, pick an airport, inform ATC, fly to said airport, carry out an approach, and land safely.

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FLG_CFC@reddit

Damn, then I learned. I want to go buy another watch from them now. Love that company.

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Inprobamur@reddit

Flying is also very loud and consumes a lot of energy.

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British_Rover@reddit

Yup the average person shouldn't even have a driver's license let alone a pilots license.

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time_to_reset@reddit

The Samson Sky Switchblade is the most serious model in development I believe.

https://www.samsonsky.com/

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SciGuy013@reddit

We already do. They’re called Cessnas and helicopters.

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baldude69@reddit

Both take thousands of hours of training, and tens of thousands of dollars to attain the license for

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DeltaV-Mzero@reddit

“Everyone” is a high bar but the entry level ones like the richter X4 are starting at $40k

Lots of people are dropping 1.5-2x that on pickup trucks they’ll only ever use as a taxi, and the cost of electric is likely to plummet thanks to innovations out of China

A legitimate flying car with a short range could be possible in that $40-$80k range, soon

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SciGuy013@reddit

Th x4 is a death trap

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Horror-Raisin-877@reddit

The flying car has been on a regular once every 10 years cycle of hype since the 1920’s. But of course physics never changes.

Every gram of an airplane has to be optimized to give the margin of power to weight that allows an aircraft to fly. But that’s not compatible with the requirements of an automobile.

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Ohiolongboard@reddit

Dude idk, look at the new “air taxis” they have in New York. We’re closer than you think, and by that I mean “it’s actually possible now”

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Dr_Adequate@reddit

It is not "actually possible now."

Autonomous cars are crashing into things all the time. If you are thinking of the Joby eVTOL air taxi nowhere do they claim autonomous flight is currently or even soon to be possible.

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ItsStraTerra@reddit

The point is that it’s within grasp. We can see the methods that will be used for this technology, and it’s just a matter of perfecting it.

That is likely to be the biggest struggle from here on. We have the ability to do this, but it’s not quite safe yet, and it works on a small scale, but what about when you’ve got 10 different companies, and 100,000 “flying vehicles” carting people around? How do you coordinate that? How do you designate airspace? What happens when these things **do** crash? However unlikely it may be, it still needs to be taken into consideration, and regulated in a way that mitigates disaster in the event of catastrophic failure or other unforeseen circumstances.

Realistically, if you owned a bunch of land, and wanted to build a little network of flying “cars” (more likely to be similar to a drone with a cab) to take you from one building to another, then you’d be able to fairly easily provided you had the money to invest in it.

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Dr_Adequate@reddit

Okay LOL you are backpedaling so fast from "it's basically possible now"

Self-driving car tech is two decades old and it's still awful in anything but ideal conditions. Self-flying aircraft in some of the most crowded airspace in the country? Decades longer away. As you pointed out just the regulatory changes are huge and complex and will not happen quickly. Not when safety is at stake.

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FletcherCommaIrwin@reddit

I fully agree with all of your points, especially the safety and accountability aspect.

Probably not in my lifetime, I do still hope is that we do get to a point where it’s like the Jetsons, The Fifth Element, Bladerunner, etc.

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CND1983Huh@reddit

You mean Our Fair City, Cambridge, Ma?

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cumberland_farms@reddit

The People's Republic of Cambridge?

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CND1983Huh@reddit

It's a bit from the old radio show Car Talk

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carrynarcan@reddit

Flying cars are like pandas. They're cool to look at and great in theory but won't multiply to save their species and I don't trust them.

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Horror-Raisin-877@reddit

Awesome metaphor, I’m going to use that one in the future if OK with you :)

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7LeagueBoots@reddit

Except it’s a bad one because it’s wrong about the panda side of things. It’s based on internet memes rather than reality.

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Horror-Raisin-877@reddit

Dunno, I’ve got a grudge against them too. In elementary school they took us to the zoo to see the dammed things again and again. We’d stand there in front of the glass for a half hour trying to see them, there’d be like an ear sticking up behind a rock at most, and the blasted things rarely even moved.

Gotta keep yer audience happy if ya wanna earn yer bamboo :)

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