Robotaxi is an aircraft IMO

[Cyberman]

Flying Robotaxi is fun to think about, but the energy requirements are off the charts for batteries. Just not feasible with todays tech. It takes a shitload of juice to keep something in the air, so aside from exotic super expensive one-offs, we are simply not going to see it anytime soon. Drones are one thing, but with human cargo you have to be 1000% sure it's safe. Just my humble.

 

[greggertruck]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/04/ale...WotGKz4lh0&mibextid=Zxz2cZ#Echobox=1670189129

 

[Crissa]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/04/ale...WotGKz4lh0&mibextid=Zxz2cZ#Echobox=1670189129

"A challenging road to legality"

-Crissa

 

[JBee]

Flying Robotaxi is fun to think about, but the energy requirements are off the charts for batteries. Just not feasible with todays tech. It takes a shitload of juice to keep something in the air, so aside from exotic super expensive one-offs, we are simply not going to see it anytime soon. Drones are one thing, but with human cargo you have to be 1000% sure it's safe. Just my humble.

Um not off the charts, it's already being done. There's a few EU ultralights and gliders that are electric and even have decent range. Flying actually uses less power than driving if you do it right and keep things light. Using eVTOL gives you a land anywhere option, and a second flight system in the form of wings you can glide down and land with. Let alone a ballistic parachute. Batteries can already do 1-2 hour flights at 120mph, that's usable, especially because it's point to point and no traffic.

 

[Cyberman]

Um not off the charts, it's already being done. There's a few EU ultralights and gliders that are electric and even have decent range. Flying actually uses less power than driving if you do it right and keep things light. Using eVTOL gives you a land anywhere option, and a second flight system in the form of wings you can glide down and land with. Let alone a ballistic parachute. Batteries can already do 1-2 hour flights at 120mph, that's usable, especially because it's point to point and no traffic.

Wings? It's starting to sound like an electric airplane to me, not a Robotaxi. Just sayin'.

 

[Crissa]

Wings? It's starting to sound like an electric airplane to me, not a Robotaxi. Just sayin'.

Taxis can have wings!

https://www.google.com/search?q=air+taxi+alaska

-Crissa

 

[JBee]

Wings? It's starting to sound like an electric airplane to me, not a Robotaxi. Just sayin'.

Propellers are just rotating wings. You can either move all the wings in the same direction, or rotate them around an axis fast enough to generate lift.

Point is either will fly using current battery power and have useable range.

Google eVTOL for examples.

 

[Crissa]

You can even have a rotating wing without powering it enough to give you direct left and gain lift from your forward motion... autogyro.

Lots of combinations now.

-Crissa

 

[JBee]

Autogyro is already 100years old in Jan 2023. I actually have a hexacopter I modded with a 7th motor as a pusher prop, that makes the hexacopter motors autorotate in forward flight. It super fast (120kmh) and uses less than half the power than tilting it in the direction of flight like it normally would. The flight controller didn't even need much modification to make it work.

 

[Crissa]

Autogyro is already 100years old in Jan 2023. I actually have a hexacopter I modded with a 7th motor as a pusher prop, that makes the hexacopter motors autorotate in forward flight. It super fast (120kmh) and uses less than half the power than tilting it in the direction of flight like it normally would. The flight controller didn't even need much modification to make it work.

Yeah, we can make things now which were fictional a century ago when many of these ideas were first envisioned.

See also Falcon 9 and Starship.

-Crissa

 

[Cyberman]

Air Taxi, fine, it's really just an airplane with a Taxi sticker on it, and maybe some pontoons, nothing new there, but it can actually work as a taxi, and carry several passengers. I've yet to see a working electric air taxi. Several posts here talk about battery powered autogyros and hexacopters, but none of these are carrying multiple people that I'm aware of.
Evtol is cool as hell, and certainly a leap in autonomous battery powered flight, but you're not going to be pulling it out of your garage to fly downtown. It's an electric four-seat plane (with big-ass wings) that can take off vertically and pretty much flies from airport to airport or heli-pad.
We're a long way from electric Robotaxi, as in a flying multi-passenger car.

 

[JBee]

Air Taxi, fine, it's really just an airplane with a Taxi sticker on it, and maybe some pontoons, nothing new there, but it can actually work as a taxi, and carry several passengers. I've yet to see a working electric air taxi. Several posts here talk about battery powered autogyros and hexacopters, but none of these are carrying multiple people that I'm aware of.
Evtol is cool as hell, and certainly a leap in autonomous battery powered flight, but you're not going to be pulling it out of your garage to fly downtown. It's an electric four-seat plane (with big-ass wings) that can take off vertically and pretty much flies from airport to airport or heli-pad.
We're a long way from electric Robotaxi, as in a flying multi-passenger car.

Just because you haven't seen one doesn't mean it doesn't exist though right?

I went through a list of about 200 of them the other day, and many of them fit in your garage. Getting them to work with people onboard is fairly easy, you can build your own manned quadcopter for around $12k with off the shelf parts, (KDE, MAD, T-motor do motors, props and ESC) If you want redundancy for safety just do a coaxial quadcopter with seperate battery and propulsion for each layer, autopilot is already redundant capable. For higher altitude flight add ballistic chute. The hardest part is getting things certified for the FAA, the EU is not as bad.

We're looking at using a few of these next year for spraying and fertiliser. We are allowed to fly up to 150kg in Australia on your own property without a licence.

 

[JBee]

Air Taxi, fine, it's really just an airplane with a Taxi sticker on it, and maybe some pontoons, nothing new there, but it can actually work as a taxi, and carry several passengers. I've yet to see a working electric air taxi. Several posts here talk about battery powered autogyros and hexacopters, but none of these are carrying multiple people that I'm aware of.
Evtol is cool as hell, and certainly a leap in autonomous battery powered flight, but you're not going to be pulling it out of your garage to fly downtown. It's an electric four-seat plane (with big-ass wings) that can take off vertically and pretty much flies from airport to airport or heli-pad.
We're a long way from electric Robotaxi, as in a flying multi-passenger car.

Or one of these for mustering:

 

[Dids]

Flying Robotaxi is fun to think about, but the energy requirements are off the charts for batteries. Just not feasible with todays tech. It takes a shitload of juice to keep something in the air, so aside from exotic super expensive one-offs, we are simply not going to see it anytime soon. Drones are one thing, but with human cargo you have to be 1000% sure it's safe. Just my humble.

https://www.jobyaviation.com/

 

[SparkChaser]

I really don't care for the rotating prop head or nacelles.