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China just approved flying taxis – no pilot needed

(engineerine.com)
78 points JumpCrisscross | 3 comments | 12 Apr 25 18:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.627s | source
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_kava ◴[12 Apr 25 19:01 UTC] No.43667054[source]▶
It is both amazing and sad to see China is literally in the future compared to the US in terms of infrastructure and social development.

A trip to one of the major cities in China made it clear to me that they are ahead of the world right now. The amount of tech and the level of integration are unbelievable. In comparasion, the streets of SF, one of the crown jewels of the US technosphere, are just so "normal" I find it hard to believe.

It is the same feeling I had decades ago walking into a then-modern metropolis in the US for the first time. All the cool tech, the convenience, the upscale atmosphere, the extravagance of it all were striking. I have not felt that again for a while and I just think it can't happen again with what I am already used to now. Incredible that China managed to evoke that sense of awe in me again.

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sepositus ◴[12 Apr 25 19:10 UTC] No.43667123[source]▶
Is there hard evidence of this beyond random anecdotes? Genuinely curious as I haven't visited there.
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1. bamboozled ◴[12 Apr 25 19:21 UTC] No.43667208[source]▶
Have you been to SF? It’s like a zombie movie with shocking public transport. There are many nicer cities which seem futuristic compared to SF. I’ve not been to a Chinese metropolis but if you just look at some photos it wouldn’t be hard to imagine somewhere like Shenzhen being much further ahead.
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2. Axsuul ◴[13 Apr 25 14:09 UTC] No.43672936[source]▶
SF varies widely be neighborhood. Public transport is not the final solution for SF, instead it’s driverless cars.
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3. bamboozled ◴[14 Apr 25 11:07 UTC] No.43680016[source]▶
It's a cop out in my opinion, it will never scale or be as useful , reliable or enjoyable to use as a well designed, operated subway. Besides Tokyo, Shenzhen, Beijing etc, will have both, subways and driverless, flying taxis, drone delivery and still be ahead of most major US cities in terms of transport options.

You have to visit a top tier East Asian city to understand just how good they have these things running, safe, clean, reliable, always on time. Like, it's amazing. Uncomprable to anything I've experienced in any major US city.

I think if a New Yorker went to Tokyo they'd be amazed how far ahead they're public transport is.

There are also health benefits to using public transport which I think we will see play out with self-driving, people will just become slobs when a car comes to their door, picks them up and drops them at the next door. Using a subway is actually a bit of healthy exercise.