Dude! Where is my flying car!?

Plus you have to 1, worry about something breaking into the system, or 2, something breaking out of the cabs. Two ways it could go wrong. Space-travel is even better than that, there's only one way for things to go wrong in that sense! :o

edited 22nd Mar '13 7:53:47 PM by Zersk

Indeed. You also need to factor in the fact that even if such a system can travel at 2 000 m/s at a theoretical maximum... would you really need to go that fast for mass transit? I would rather have something that goes at 150 m/s and particularly safe. Also, to create a vacuum chamber that could link two nearby cities - let alone two continents - would be nearly-impossible in terms of what money could be spent on transportation upgrades.

Plus, how do you keep that sort of vaccuum up in the first place? Without any air escaping?

And to keep the vactunnel a... vacuum, you would need highly specialist equipment. Put simply, if you were connecting two cities, to create a vactrain infrastructure, you'd need to demolish half the city's land area to host it.

Please, look at what the engineers working on it have to say before you come up with all these wild scenarios. >.> P.S.

I guess if you built it really far down into the earth's crust? :o But then there are still holes possible. :V

^ Aww, we never said you were a retard. :< But not picking apart scenarios seems silly. :o

edited 22nd Mar '13 8:08:00 PM by Zersk

@ Cass. We never said you were a retard. :< We're just logically disputing an idea. While it seems like a good idea in the future, it would never work now.

Avery Brooks wants his flying car, he doesn't care how physically impossible it is.

edited 23rd Mar '13 7:28:45 AM by maxwellelvis

There it is dude!

They'd probably make a vacuum however they made the vacuum for the LHC. ~_~

Otherwise known as "through ridiculously expensive means".

edited 23rd Mar '13 1:37:50 AM by Bunnie

If they managed that' it would be an impressive Epic Fail. You can only pump out the air after the tunnel's dug and built.

You can, however, have something go on when the pumping start and people get sucked in.

edited 23rd Mar '13 2:09:58 AM by IraTheSquire

I don't want faster and faster means of transportation.

What I want is a mature system of telepresence/virtual reality. I want to be able to visit any place, anywhere, without moving physically from my hometown. I want to be able to rent robotic bodies and "pilot" them remotely, while getting all their sensory data (even data that would lie outside of my normal senses).

It's easier on the environment, cooler, safer, and just plain more convenient.

As they say... Progress is made by the lazy man attempting to find easier ways to do things.

That's a neat idea, but if that happened then people would have to really step up their diet and exercise regimen or their real bodies would atrophy pretty quick...

The answer is obvious: Flying cars will never happen. People can barely drive in two dimensions, what makes you think they can drive in three?

Hell, what I want is some actual reliable public transport that can actually get me across the country. Or Solar power to actually be viable. Either one.

People can barely drive in two dimensions, what makes you think they can drive in three?

THIS.

Yes, flying cars! And while we're at it, why are there still insects? And do we really need these 'trees' around anymore? (I have read that these are all things that some people used to believe were going to happen[citation needed]).

I think of everything mentioned in this topic, the driverless cars are the most likely, as well as remotely controlled, uhh, bodies...?

Of anything though, I wish I could live in a city that was designed to be car-less all together. If a city is designed to not have cars from the get-go, it could be a more comfortable place for people to walk and to bike. There could be a robust public transit system that stays out of the way, for those who need to get to places fast.

... I really don't like cars. >_>

When I was in Korea I used to walk or take a bus to everywhere because everything was close.

Now that I am in America, I can't get anywhere outside the campus without asking my friends for a favor. It is really annoying when I have to physically go to banks and whathaveyou.

Flying cars have existed as long as single-seater airplanes have. People just don't notice because they want an automobile with wings instead of noticing that form follows function.

Yeah, I don't want flying cars. Can you imagine how much worse car accidents would be if people not only smashed into each other but also fell out of the sky?

Things to remember: there's a whole lot more room in the sky and a whole lot less to slam into.

^ Except for the ground.

Yeah. If you consider that the majority of first-world nationals live in urban environments, where tall buildings constrict airspace, then you're fucked.

What should be done is better investment in public transport. The vision of Europe is everywhere connected by mass transit. That would be nice a thought, except its untrue. You won't get good mass transit outside of the capitals and such. Birmingham is the second-largest city in the UK, and yet we have comparatively shitty public transport infrastructure in comparison to London.

^ In the US we have this thing called lots of space. It's not feasible or practical to fund large scale public transportation projects.

Especially in areas where the distance between towns can be measured in days if you are walking.

For instance where I work is 26 miles away from home. It would take me about 12 hours to walk that distance one way with no stops. Most people would take a full day or two to get that far if they made it at all. Worse, where I live has 5000 people spread out over 120 square miles of rural roads, five towns combined, and a whole lot of distance separating each other. The railroad tracks cut away beyond the canyonlands to the east of us so there's no rail service of any kind going to be coming our way. The distance and low population makes public bus transit unfeasible. (Hell, you're lucky if you can snag cab service out here!) And the weather is often uncooperative in the winter and spring. (Take this into consideration that the majority of our roads are lane-and-a-half dirt roads.)

It just isn't worth it to build public transit of any kind out this way even if you snagged all 5000 people out here onto it. And this effect happens all over the country. Hell in some states there are areas you cannot reach by conventional ground travel.

edited 26th Mar '13 8:16:52 PM by MajorTom

Mind you, even in the cities, our mass transit is balls. Omaha has pretty limited mass transit at the very least.