Great to finally see someone (Aster) who has a feel for the ‘bigger picture’ — summarized: as long as we are not able to “Beam me up, Scotty” from A to B the physical mode of transportation as well as the smartest way how to use this remain important. In another Medium article you expressed the potential of ‘mobility as a service’ providers. You are right. Lyft and Uber shareholders ought to pay attention to this newer development. They run a considerable risk of never making good on their investments.

Now, with regard to aerial vehicles or eVTOLs, it is important to realize that they have massive potential (differs per country), but are still a long way from implementable as regular, scheduled services. Intrinsically low-energy density of battery drive, noise levels and low-level air traffic control I consider the most important problems that need solving. That hasn’t kept investors from putting millions in individual projects, despite the fact that some of them are spectacularly flawed to begin with, right from the drawing board. Key is that everything that is supposed to go up and down vertically, like a helicopter or eVTOL, has to address the paramount aspect of ‘disc loading’. There’s a reason why Uber does not invest in eVTOLs (like Elon Musk does not in hyperloops). Below an overview of the more known projects I used for my presentation at the 5th Transformative Flight Conference, organized by AHS, the American Helicopter Society and NASA Ames.

From a logistics, recharging and ‘economy-of-weight’ point of view, it is best to modularly combine road and aerial transport modes, btw. You get what I call ‘Seamless 2D & 3D passenger transport’ (also the title of my presentation). Let me know, if you want to know more. Ralph (sevehicle@gmail.com)