Air Taxis?

[Saluki]

There are two companies vying for the AirTaxi business with VTOL (Aircraft/Plane Hybrids) that use electric batteries.  Stellantis owns over 10% of Archer and keeps buying more, and the competitor is JOBY. 

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ACHR/

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/JOBY/

 

It sounded like a silly idea to put billions into, and I thought I might be mistaken, but then I saw the Cathy Woods of Ark is a big investor in ACHR, and then I realized my first instinct was probably correct. 

 

Batteries are less energy dense than hydrocarbons, which limits their range.  Going from Manhattan to LaGuardia by air taxi and bypassing traffic sounds like an interesting use case, but can't you already do that with a helicopter? And if you have to go to a small regional airport, instead of using a helipad, doesn't than defeat the purpose of a Taxi?  I'm sure there is traffic from your midtown office to the smaller airport too.  

 

Also, the military has been trying to get the VTOL to work for decades and more marines have been killed by the VTOLs than by the Houthis. If you kill serviceman it looks bad on the news, but when you start killing your customers, it's an unusual business model unless you are in the tobacco industry. 

 

Too hard pile for me. 

[rkbabang]

Yeah, this is one of those things that will eventually change everything, like fusion, but the tech isn't there yet.  It will start with air taxis and the wealthy owning fully autonomous air cars.  Then the upper middle class will own their own, then everyone. Roads will be local, for bike riding and walking on.  The highways system will be for trucking goods long distances, much more efficiently than now due to the lack of private travel on them.   This won't happen until 1) Efficient way to power them.  2) Fully autonomous control is developed.  (the average Joe driving his own air car manually is a non-starter).  3) Government gets out of the way, or at least changes laws to allow this with regulations that make sense.

 

https://www.newsweek.com/map-states-flying-cars-legal-1930345

 

Edited August 12 by rkbabang

[Pelagic]

Any info released by Joby/Archer on what their costs to operate are and how that compares to a helicopter flying a similar route?

 

I think Hybrid Air Vehicles design might be more practical for short regional mobility as it can carry significantly more passengers while remaining competitive on emissions and flight time.

 

https://www.hybridairvehicles.com/airlander/airlander-10/mobility/

[Fly]

Air traffic control is such an incredible mess in the US. I can’t imagine now we’re going to stuff hundreds of eVTOLs into the NYC airspace system so everyone can hop around the city. I just don’t see this as real profitable tech anytime soon. 

[Intelligent_Investor]

Having a more advanced subway system like that in Asian cities would be much more beneficial than whatever this bullshit is. America seems allergic to public transit for some damn reason

[boilermaker75]

22 hours ago, rkbabang said:

Yeah, this is one of those things that will eventually change everything, like fusion, but the tech isn't there yet.  It will start with air taxis and the wealthy owning fully autonomous air cars.  Then the upper middle class will own their own, then everyone. Roads will be local, for bike riding and walking on.  The highways system will be for trucking goods long distances, much more efficiently than now due to the lack of private travel on them.   This won't happen until 1) Efficient way to power them.  2) Fully autonomous control is developed.  (the average Joe driving his own air car manually is a non-starter).  3) Government gets out of the way, or at least changes laws to allow this with regulations that make sense.

 

https://www.newsweek.com/map-states-flying-cars-legal-1930345

 

 

Not surprised they are legal in the "Live free or die" state.

[rkbabang]

10 minutes ago, boilermaker75 said:

 

Not surprised they are legal in the "Live free or die" state.

 

I was on the highway last summer and was behind this old beat up motorcycle with a milk crate bungee corded to the back of it.  The guy driving it had a long beard, no shirt, no helmet, and a shotgun strapped across his back.  All legal here of course.  I love this this state.

 

[rkbabang]

1 hour ago, Intelligent_Investor said:

Having a more advanced subway system like that in Asian cities would be much more beneficial than whatever this bullshit is. America seems allergic to public transit for some damn reason

 

Subways may help in very densely populated metropolitan areas, but the US is relatively lightly populated.  There will never be a subway in Wyoming or New Hampshire.  Also the US is huge.  Texas, for example, is gigantic, you aren't building public transportation to get from any point in TX to any other point in TX.  It just isn't feasible.  If we had 1.5 Billion people squeezed into half the land, sure, but not currently.   This and the fact that Americans do not like public transportation. We'd pay many times the cost and spend much more time commuting to avoid riding in shared vehicles.  There is nothing like owning your own means of transportation and not having to sit with 50 other people on your way to work or the airport.   It's bad enough we have to sit in crowded planes.   If there was a way to fly long distances individually at a reasonable cost, we'd do that instead.

[boilermaker75]

1 hour ago, rkbabang said:

 

I was on the highway last summer and was behind this old beat up motorcycle with a milk crate bungee corded to the back of it.  The guy driving it had a long beard, no shirt, no helmet, and a shotgun strapped across his back.  All legal here of course.  I love this this state.

 

 

My t-shirt

[73 Reds]

54 minutes ago, boilermaker75 said:

 

My t-shirt

I always liked your State slogan.  And your State, of course.

[james22]

7 hours ago, rkbabang said:

There is nothing like owning your own means of transportation and not having to sit with 50 other people on your way to work or the airport.

 

Exactly.

[boilermaker75]

11 hours ago, rkbabang said:

 

I was on the highway last summer and was behind this old beat up motorcycle with a milk crate bungee corded to the back of it.  The guy driving it had a long beard, no shirt, no helmet, and a shotgun strapped across his back.  All legal here of course.  I love this this state.

 

 

I hope he registered to be an organ donor, LOL.

[Saluki]

If you think air taxis will be a thing, check out Amprius.  It's down 82% over the past year.  It has no debt, Airbus is an investor, and their tech is well suited for this use case (i.e. it's more expensive but much more energy density than convention lithium batteries).  It's not profitable and I don't have a position in it, but IF air taxis with batteries instead of engines becomes a thing, this will probably make you rich. 

 

I don't know what advantage a VTOL will have over a helicopter, but if Afghanistan isn't too dangerous for the Marines, but VTOLs are, I won't be flying in one. 

[Spekulatius]

I always think it’s “Live free and die” when I see the motorcyclists without helmet on NH roads. However NH is thinly populated and I don’t think  their traffics mortality rates are bad and the insurance is lower than in most other places.

[rkbabang]

On 8/14/2024 at 6:14 PM, Spekulatius said:

I always think it’s “Live free and die” when I see the motorcyclists without helmet on NH roads. However NH is thinly populated and I don’t think  their traffics mortality rates are bad and the insurance is lower than in most other places.

Insurance is lower because it’s less regulated and not required by law. My insurance went down by more than half when I moved from MA to NH. Same cars, same drivers, same coverage, same insurance company, less than half the price.