Posted on 03/01/2022 5:30:08 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
Subhead: Collaboration aims to solve the worldwide problem of traffic congestion with the world's first viable drive & fly eVTOL
Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting and business re-engineering services, announced that it has collaborated with ASKA™, a drive and fly company that offers consumers a new generation commuter vehicle by combining the convenience of an automobile, with the safety, ease and efficiency of VTOL (Vertical Take-off And Landing) and STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) flight, to create the best drive-and-fly experience. The collaboration aims to solve the worldwide problem of traffic congestion and improve people's quality of life with the world's first viable drive & fly eVTOL (Electric drive & fly Vertical Take-off and Landing).
This collaboration will leverage Tech Mahindra's extensive expertise in the engineering space that comes with decades of experience of working with top aerospace and automotive customers. Tech Mahindra will support ASKA in the areas of design, analysis, development of composites and advanced materials, crash dynamics (automotive and aerospace), battery and structural testing.
(Excerpt) Read more at prlog.org ...
I went in very skeptical and came out a believer that he really sees the future of transportation. Initilally, the vehicle will require a licensed pilot and a regular airport or helipad, but as it matures, non-licensed people will be able to fly it and, in the not too far future, you will have companies setting up their own helipads for employees to fly to. Some of the market ideas he suggested were very interesting. He pointed out how even highly paid Google people cannot afford a house in Silicon Valley, but they can afford a house out in the central valley or the Sierras foothills. The car has a target price of $800,000, so, if you had two or three people living in the same community in the foothills, they could split the car cost and be miles ahead with the cheaper house mortgages a 30 minute flight from the Bay Area. Or they could lease the car for their own M-F commuting and other lessees would use it for weekend jaunts to the wine country, to Monterey, or to Napa Valley. If you like going to Tahoe for the weekend in your car, you have to endure heavy traffic Friday night and leave Sunday noon to deal with the return traffic. You only get one full day in the mountains. With Aska, you can go up Saturday morning and return Sunday night and get two full days there.
I asked about collision avoidance and how people will get comfortable with flying in an autonomous vehicle. He says the car will have hundred of sensors on it for control, navigation, stability, and collision avoidance. He made an interesting analogy -- the Bay Area has about 8 million people and maybe 5 million cars, all sharing limited roadways. People are used to traveling 70-80 mph on the freeways only two feet away from another car or heavy truck. He thinks that air travel will be a lot safer than freeway travel because of the plentiful 3D room you have to maneuver around other air vehicles.
He pointed out that lots of people in their teens and 20s today don't even have drivers licenses and that this generation will be very comfortable with this new mode of travel.
The car can be full VTOL or STOL. Full VTOL uses a lot more energy and reduces your range. It is a hybrid vehicle with gasoline engines providing power (I guess driving a generator to power the electric motors).
They have a full-scale cockpit mockup and flight simulator in their showroom. They have sub-scale prototypes flying and are working on their first full-scale complete aircraft.
It was a most enlightening conversation with an Elon Musk sort of fellow.
Looks like a levitating Waring blender.
I was a private pilot for many years (let my medical cert. lapse when my job got too busy for me to fly regularly. Better to not fly than to fly straight into the air wing of Davy Jones' Locker).
But aside from the problems with all the idiots that drive cars getting into a vehicle that functions in three dimensions, three little words . . .
Overhead. Power. Lines.
Looks like those power lines saved that guy from hitting the ground!
I’m guessing Google Airspace will know where every single power line is located.
There will only be a few hundred or so of them, for Satan Klaus (Schwab) and the enlightened 300. Everybody else will be glad to have a glowballist owned bicycle to borrow.
Own nothing, be happy!
“But aside from the problems with all the idiots that drive cars getting into a vehicle that functions in three dimensions, three little words . . .
Overhead. Power. Lines.”
Texting.
He offered me a job. I passed. He demanded on site on call anytime day or night and a pay package that was not even close to affording the cost of living there especially with my skill set and experience. But there were “stock options”.... Sorry. I have done enough aircraft to know there will be no profit in these projects. And the pay would get me a cardboard box in the back ally and still barely have enough leftover to eat. The concept doesn’t work either. There is no way FAA will open airspace in big city like San Fran, especially when there are several major international airports. I do wish him well and much success.
I used to be a fire investigator. Nothing turns my stomach, so I err on the side of caution about dead burnt bodies.
Especially the kids.
Pretty good sense on your part. This is “pie in the sky” if ever there was . . . .
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