"Flying car" might come earlier than imagined

ByJD Hancock

NCSA MosaicYaNetscape NavigatorSoftware developers who developed Web browsers such asMark AndreisenHe currently runs venture capital Andreessen Horowitz in Silicon Valley and is deeply acquainted with Silicon Valley and the technology area. In response to such an interview by the news site "The Verge", he reveals information about the "flying car" being advanced in Silicon Valley.

Flying cars are closer than you think | Verge 2021
http://www.theverge.com/a/verge-2021/marc-andreessen-horowitz-verge-interview

In an interview, Andreessen received a question, "When is it possible to be able to ride a flying car?" Andriessen said, "I am developing a flying car, the three leading edge startups are silicon I know that it exists in the valley. " Two of them are start-ups that Mr. Larry Page is owned by Google, founder of Google, and Mr. Andrysen's venture capital is also investing in two out of three companies.

There seems to be two or three major obstacles to the development of that "flying car". For safety reasons, Andreessen tells us that "Mankind does not want to fly in the sky by car", but it is easier to develop a car which fly automatically in the sky than to realize an automatic driving car on the ground It is revealing that. The reason seems to be that it has more freedom for various troubles.

And it also reveals that the problem that can not be avoided in developing flying cars is "battery". Companies developing flying cars are working on breakthroughs in batteries. In existing technology, only 50 miles (about 80 km) fly, the batteries of the flying car run out, and then it is difficult to put into practical use, I commented. However, if breakthrough happens with this battery problem, it also suggests the possibility of a flying car becoming practical in 5 to 10 years.

Furthermore, if we could make 10 to 100 times more power than existing batteries and 10 to 100 times longer lasting, human beings could make Ironman's suit, Andreessen said. It also points out that it is not limited only to Silicon Valley technology companies that have the potential to overcome this problem.


Andreessen Horowitz also invests in "Lyft", a rival company of the Uber dispatch service Uber. This Lyft announced that "I will switch over the majority of the cars used within five years to an auto driving car", but when such an automatic driving car is said to "appear around the time?" According to Andrewsen 's question, "This topic has a part that is also familiar to the reason why Google's automatic driving car has not appeared yet."

Mr. Andreessen said that the automatic driving car is "a difficult challenge," while driving a road of 40 miles (about 64 km) over an hour, turning left again and 25 miles again (about 40 km) over an hour It is very difficult to run through the urban areas where pedestrian crossings and children are running around afterwards and then you can not fail on all of them in an automated driving car. Since cars run on various roads, various things can happen. For example, when road construction is underway, a worker with a stick or flag is standing on the road to indicate "stop". Automatic driving cars must be able to understand the sign of "stop" indicated on that flag and actually stop the car. Since this is not arranged at a fixed position like a signal or an intersection, you must be able to stop in the same way when you find the sign of "Stop" anytime and anywhere. Automatic driving car will not be released unless all these problems are cleared.

And, basically, it is unlikely that automatic driving cars developed by multiple companies will be released at the same time, Andreessen said. Therefore, adopting an automatic driving car on the day when services such as Uber and Lyft are on, it is said that it will not happen that automatic driving cars overflow into the city at a stretch.