Silicon Valley CEO Says Skip The Bay Bridge, Consider Taking A Flying Motorcycle

CBS - SF ^ | September 19, 2017 6:31 PM | By Devin Fehely

[Red Badger]

It may look like something straight out of Star Wars, but flying motorcycles are almost here.

They could be ready to hit the sky in just a few short years.

“Three years from now flying cars will be very hot,” said Kitty Hawk CEO Sebastian Thrun.

It seems like the stuff of science fiction, but Thrun — engineer, entrepreneur and one-time driving force behind Google’s autonomous car program — says flying vehicles are just a few years, not decades away.

Thrun said, “We should not be getting stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel or the Bay Bridge anymore. You should just be able to go on your flying motorcycle and go wherever you want to go. That is actually becoming reality now.”

Thrun made that cheadline-grabbing claim during his talk on Day 2 of the Tech Crunch conference in San Francisco.

“We actually believe we’ll have our first product ready in February of next year. And it’s more of like a flying motorcycle than a flying car,” Thrun said.

It looks kind of like an airborne jet ski.

A very rough prototype was unveiled in April.

Thrun says the technology could someday revolutionize transportation as the innovations behind self-driving cars and drones merge.

“It’s an electric aircraft,” Thrun said. “And everything that’s hard about flying is done by the computer — all the wind computation stuff. And I get a joy stick interface that’s just like a video game. And it’s just as much fun as a video game, but it’s real.”

If two or three years seems likely an overly optimistic estimate about when flying vehicles might be on the market, Thrun says much like self-driving cars, technology will outpace regulations, leaving the rule makers struggling to catch up.

[Red Badger]

Flying Motorcycle ping!..................

[Red Badger]

VIDEO AT LINK.......................

[Tenacious 1]

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[DoughtyOne]

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[wally_bert]

Drugs and repeats of Megaforce don’t mix.

[Garth Tater]

"And it’s just as much fun as a video game, but it’s real."

Talk about a blue screen of death. No thanks, I'll fly my air-cycle myself.

[Dstorm]

Are the colonials here now? The Cylons will soon be here By ypur Command

[dragnet2]

Oh sure, all the zillions driving cars in CA will be using flying motorcycles in a few years. That’s going to happen, sure.

Geezuz...

[Red Badger]

BG....I was wondering how long that would take.................

[Cold Heart]

That was funny

[null and void]

Hagrid had one...

[ltc8k6]

Yeah, that won’t be loud at all...

[The Louiswu]

(also called skycycle) (a) A motorcycle-like vehicle which used an oversized lift belt motor to fly, and a force-field generator to stop the wind. Such flycycles were used circa 2646 by Garvey and Jilson on Down.

(b) The Puppeteer-built type of flycycle carried aboard the starship Lying Bastard (aka Liar), used by the First Ringworld Expedition in 2850-1, was a dumbbell-shaped vehicle composed of two four-foot spheres, with a seat in the constriction. Nessus’ seat was a reclining “belly-bed” with three groves for his legs. The Humans’ seats were padded contour chairs, as was the larger Kzin’s seat. Half the rear section of the flycycle was luggage space, with a harness for hanging additional gear. It was equipped with an autokitchen slot, a communication system projecting small holograms, and a cooler-extractor which condensed water from the air. They were propelled by a thruster, controlled by pedals and a joystick, and had a maximum speed above Mach 1; the occupant was protected by a sonic fold. They had toilet facilities which were easy to use, but undignified. [Spoiler alert: Ringworld] Speaker-To-Animals used a flycycle to maneuver in space to investigate the shadow square wire, before the Liar crashed on the Ringworld. The flycycles also had a hidden emergency thrust setting which increased the speed to about Mach 4. All four of the expedition’s flycycles were caught in the speed trap in Hotrufan City and pulled inside the police building. Nessus’ flycycle was later anchored inside that building to propel what became the Improbable.

Reference: (a) “The Handicapped”, (b) Ringworld chs. 9-11, 17-22, 24

[wally_bert]

Build something like the Cyclone motorcycle from Robotech.

[wally_bert]

A better idea, the Condor motorcycle / helicopter from the MASK cartoon without the weapons.

[Rinnwald]

I got in my Moller Skycar, that I bought in 1980, and flew right over, with my wife...Morgan Fairchild.

[John Milner]

How ‘bout just a turbocharger on my lawnmower? Get that blade about 22,000 RPM and I’m mowing tree tops, baby! Lawnboy my a$$!

[Tenacious 1]

How ‘bout just a turbocharger on my lawnmower? Get that blade about 22,000 RPM and I’m mowing tree tops, baby! Lawnboy my a$$!

If you have the blade on right, @ 22,000 RPM, you would need to turn it upside down to fly it. I expect a short flight if you are going to mow through the trees from the bottom up. I'd also invest in 5-point harness and a helmet. Let me know when and where you want to try it. I'll bring the beer and record the historic event. LOL!

[pax_et_bonum]

Coming soon: air crashes while texting and taking selfies while flying.