As part of a government-led initiative, Israel prepares infrastructure for national airspace network of large drones that are designed to carry passengers and heavy cargo
These are such a terrible idea, mostly because of the noise. Imagine a world where these become even halfway popular in any urban environment…
Cars already cause huge noise pollution in cities, which has large-scale effects on health and well-being, but anything using rotors to stay airborne makes cars seem comparatively quiet.
That’s not going to ease traffic congestion…
@sexy_peach It can mitigate a lot in some places.
I don’t see as an adequate solution for the people transportation, but it can facilitate a lot the transportation of wares and hardware. I mean in the specific case of Israel, in which already the roads and the railways are overloaded.
For transportation of people I agree that this solution cannot compete with a good public transport infrastructure, more traditional and based on train, bus and collective taxis.Air taxis are sort of like adding a thumb drive because you’ve run out of space on your HDD and SSD.
The number of people you can move with eVTOL is just tiny compared to the throughput you’d need to dent traffic.
This is one of those ideas that sounds cool when you’re a teenager but then as you get older you think “nah”. Although if anyone can actually make it work then it might be interesting.
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Sure, what we need is even more energy-hungry transportation
There’s a lot cheaper and a lot more efficient ways to deal with traffic but hey, you can’t get a VC to pump millions into a state-run train line, can you?
@ClaySpears In Israel is difficult. The railways are already almost overloaded, and they don’t communicate well the industrial areas, they are used mostly for person transportation. And it is difficult to build more, think in a small and overpopulated country. The only way for most relevant areas is or do the new railways through populated areas (including demolition of houses), or through ecologically sensitive areas.
I don’t see those drones good for transportation in the cities, but they can help in the transportation of ware and hardware between the industrial areas.