Imagine a time without cars. Just over a century ago, streets were meant for pedestrians just as much as they were for horses and carriages. There was no traffic, no parking lots. To get somewhere you’d walk, hop on a horse-drawn trolley, or take the train. It may seem like a romantic departure from our current lives, but it’s not quite so romantic. If it was raining, you’d be sure to get wet and muddy. If you had to travel a long distance, pack your patience. And if you lived in a large city like New York, the streets were piling up with horse manure from the horse-drawn carriages and trolleys. So we invented the horseless carriage and this changed everything. Now our countries are connected by freeways, highways and no longer do we need to take the train– we can fly across the country in hours time. Before I digress any further, the point of this look back in time is to help understand that we are at a new turning point in how we move around as people. Cars are the new horse-drawn carriages and there’s a new option for transport promised to us– the drone.
The Drones
Drones are being tested as a delivery service for Amazon and UPS. You may be shocked to hear that UPS has already been cleared and approved for drone delivery by the FAA. While they haven’t launched a full-scale delivery service, be prepared for the next few years as we see more and more deliveries happen by air. While the conversation of delivery drones dominates the news cycles, there’s a much bigger and potentially more disruptive aerial giant coming– the passenger drone.
Uber, Boeing, Airbus, and Lilium are just a few of the companies with prototypes of passenger drones hoping to take to the skies in this coming decade. They hope to expand our options for transportation in dense urban areas. Many are going to be used as air shuttles or taxis between city centers and airports. Some may have the range to go between cities near one another. Others plan to have a flexible on-demand structure. Either way, these companies are envisioning a future where we can skip the freeways and streets and take a drone, saving time and lessening congestion. While the pricing on these flights is yet to be determined, many companies are aiming for an approachable pricing plan. So, when can we fly over the rush hour traffic? Probably not soon.
Will They Fly?
In ten years, let’s assume a few of these passenger drones have taken off and are regularly servicing inter-city passengers. Let’s also assume the prices are genuinely approachable, much like Lyft or Uber would be. So if you live in a city center, and you’re flying to the airport, good news! You can skip all of the build-up traffic around the passenger terminals. But what if you live in the suburbs and you still have to take your car to the city center to get on a drone? Or if they had alternative take-off locations, but none were close by, you’re still stuck driving. Even if enough people do end up taking these shuttles, would it mitigate traffic enough? Imagine our skies filled with giant swarming drones and we still have to wait hours in traffic. What’s the point? There seems to be no way of knowing until we see it for ourselves.
Sure, in the 2020 decade we’re going to see these air shuttles in the air regardless and they promise to change the way we commute. There’s a lot of promise in this emerging industry, a lot of questions, too. Just as with the advent of the car, not everyone will have access to the UAVs of the future. It might be 30 years before the market or technology catches up to the general public and passenger drones become as commonplace as cars are now. Maybe the Jetsons and The Fifth Element got it right– flying cars are in our future. The sad reality is that right now, they don’t look as cool (some look pretty ridiculous). I can settle for a drone shuttle for now.
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Interesting topic. My concern is how these dones are going to be flown and the safety measures to prevent mid air collisions.
Our earth (2/3 water) is often hit with space junk. Adding more flying vehicles to our airways, will increase the chances of more falling junk (but this time over land). Are we up for the challenge, Mindblower!
Drones and flying private vehicles will create disastrous events in the future when flying in the air without any form of directional management.
This is based on the majority of human beings in the current society who cannot correctly operate a motor vehicle.
Broken vehicles and injured or dead bodies fall to the ground will not be a pleasant job to clean up the mess.
Weather conditions will have prime control as many problems come to mind, hungry people’s meals disappearing without a trace when hurricanes, snowstorms, hailstones destroy the drones.
One has to wonder why this type of article never indicates the negative aspects which will occur.
Will any of those situations be ‘cool’ do you think.
No!! Drones as cars can’t work. Imagine transferring bumper to bumper road traffic to the air instead? And how will we control vast numbers of private flying objects alongside the existing aircraft traffic? I don’t think so.