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Thread: Airbus reveals a modular, self-piloting flying car concept

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    Lightbulb Airbus reveals a modular, self-piloting flying car concept

    While I applaud visionary and futuristic ideas such as this one, at the same time, the petrol head in me is saddened by the increasing popularity of self-driving vehicles, and I fear that people who still wish to drive their cars themselves — not to mention: people who would in the long run still be capable of actually operating a vehicle — are becoming a dying breed.

    In a way, I feel that we are becoming too dependent on technology that we cannot (or can no longer) control ourselves.

    Let's take computers as an example. All the way up into the early 1990s, people who privately owned a computer were enthusiasts, and they knew and understood their computers. But nowadays, computers have become mere household appliances — not to mention that the new trend/hype is to store all of your data in The Cloud — and when something goes wrong, nobody knows what to do anymore, and people are down to invoking the help from third-party (and commercial) instances.

    Furthermore, when it comes to innovating concepts such as the one at the subject of this thread, there are more than a few caveat emptors...:

    • First and foremost, robotized transportation systems such as this one are hard-dependent on the satellite-driven global positioning system. Not only are satellites prone to failure over time, but they are also vulnerable to the hazards of outer space. For instance, they may get hit by a meteor, a comet or an asteroid. And in addition to that, the global positioning system in use today is still almost exclusively under control of the US military, who may and can decide at will to throttle down on the positioning resolution "for reasons of national security" whenever they see fit.

    • Secondly, in light of the Vault 7 Wikileaks revelations — and specifically, as mentioned in the article I've shared with you in this post here — we have to keep in mind that a completely robotized transportation system which uses both flight and travel by road may be easily compromised and exploited by autocratic alphabet agency spooks such as the CIA or the NSA in order to assassinate people.


    Food for thought, dear Hobbitses...







    Source: TechCrunch


    Airbus has been talking about its Vahana flying autonomous vehicle project for a while now, but at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, it’s showing off a concept design created in partnership with Italdesign. The demonstration vehicle offers modular functionality, meaning it an operate both on the ground and in the air, and Airbus thinks it’s one potential answer to the growing problem of urban traffic congestion.

    As you can see, it’s suitably sci-fi in its design sensibilities, but it’s designed with practicality in mind. The concept vehicle is intended to work with others to form a network that can be summoned on demand, with passengers hailing a ride form an app on their mobile device. The capsule-based design can connect to either ground or air conveyance modules, letting customers specific their preferred method of transit. It’s also designed to be used in concert with other, existing transportation methods for maximum efficiency.

    Airbus and Italdesign call their creation the ‘Pop.Up System,’ which includes the artificial intelligence platform that uses what it knows about any individual user, and available routes and transit options to determine the best travel options. The main vehicle itself is a passenger capsule, which holds the rider and which can be paired with either ground and air modules, as well as, Airbus suggests, with hyperloop systems down the line once that tech becomes more widely available.




    There’s a third part of Pop.Up that ensures this whole project touches all bases when it comes to current tech hype – an interface that will respond and interact with the user in a “fully virtual environment” while in transit. They’ve thought of everything.

    Well, except making this thing real: It’s very much still a concept, though its 8.5-foot long monocoque carbon-fibre passenger pod is built-to scale and on the show floor at Geneva, as are the wheeled ground module and quadcopter drone air transit system.

    It’s unlikely to ever be ferrying passengers around, at least in this state, and in the near future, but it’s a very cool design that can at least make us want to work a bit harder to get to a place where it is a viable, everyday option for navigating our expanding and increasingly dense cities.


    = DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =

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