Added: 3 years ago
From: TEDtalksDirector
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  • There's a difference between a disbeliever and someone who has waited years and years to see this invention do more than hover tests.

  • Winkel engines have been used by Mazda since the late 70's. They purchased it from Yamaha who produced a rotary engine motorcycle for a couple years.

  • Meet George Jetson....

  • the cg sequence was good, and also combined with live action by the way.

  • they have a new harrier jump jet they just made, called the f 35. it can take of vertically.

  • Why did the CG sequence look worse than the 80's?

  • Also, couldnt he afford a P.R. Guy geezz. Would he do well to have someone give his speech for him? Sheesh even Moses had Aaron....

  • If you simply add retractable wings then you could glide to the ground in an engine failure. He seems stuck on the no wings thing. Is it Blimp without the blimp there?

  • Maybe if after 30 years your flying car could actually fly, that might help your pitch.

  • you need an energy generator as a magnetic engine that makes a dynamo create de energy to supply electric motor

  • You know, I don't really see flight control being taken out of the equation. In fact if you combine the GPS navigation system with a transponder, you could get a proximity and trajectory sensor for one car versus others. The transponder would also broadcast an ID, kind of like an airborne license plate.

  • i still remember seeing and hearing about the skycar many many many years ago, im talking back in the 90's and i've always thought they were awesome. I hope im around when they, or something of the like comes into widespread use.

  • I suspect the gov't already is using it. Military or other

  • "...if we could get rid of the 50-80+ miles"!

    We should be encouraging bicycling....not "flying"!

  • I think I will reinvent his skycar .

  • Thumbs up if you will own a flying car in your lifetime!

  • Not good enough, and old technology, and even if it was good enough, where is it?

    We need to stop waiting and start demanding that serious personal flight tech be brought to everyone immediately. It's available if people push for it. Personal flight machines, must be free to roam the air.

    Driving to a mini airport and programming in a destination is not acceptable.

    People want to fly, and they should have been doing it long ago.

    The stockholders he mentioned are going to be very dissapointed.

  • @AlkPacino you dumbfuck id like to see you invent a flying car go ahead and do it stop bitching

  • @itsraininglool

    Calm down, you'll hurt yourself

  • The main reason why I dont believe in this is that it will always be inefficient and noisy due to the engines small diameter. m*g=rho*A*v^2 will tell you that even if each engine is 60cm in diameter the flow velocity is still 319km/h!!!

    For an Osprey it is 116km/h. See the difference??

    ...and not to mention the wing size and layout.

    This idea is flawed on so many levels it's impressive he found anyone to invest. Just look at his homepage, it's full of fantasy figures.

  • three hundred miles an hour at twenty five thousand feet... notice his body language when he said that- he turns his left side to the audience a little, as if daring them to disbelieve. Well, I do. you want to go twenty five thousand feet in a plane the size of a minivan? Really? better have a parachute on that puppy

  • moller put alot of effort into trying to make it happen, however i don't think everyone can afford a flying vehicle for over $300k. I'm looking at alternatives, The taxi type system works the best, Where companies would own the expensives pieces of machinery including maintenance, There would be a booth to call for a ride, the auto piloted vehicle would land in that area, pickup the people and ferry them to their location. His vehicle doesn't look safe though, and it doesn't have enough funding.

  • "60 years later im here to tell you why its possible" and 11 years after that...still no flying car.

  • @bobmarleyt3 Some are skeptics and some are anti flying car. They think a vtol with no exposed rotor blades is more dangerous than an open rotor chopper. I suppose we could have safer cars if they had no mudguards. SEE YOUTUBE VIDEOS BY justwantahover FOR 10 CHEAP AND EASY FLYING CAR DESIGNS.

  • THE HILLER FLYING PLATFORM IS THE ONLY REAL HOPE FOR THE FLYING CAR. IT'S BEEN DONE IN 1955 AND SO STABLE YOU CAN AIM AND FIRE A RIFLE WHILE IN A CONTROLLED HOVER. YOUR UAV IS BASED ON THE FLYING PLATFORM. SEE justwantahover CHANNEL FOR 10 DESIGNS BASED ON IT. SEE YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF NASA TESTING OF FLYING PLATFORM.

  • the future is now!

  • if i dont get a viper i deffinitly want a sky car :D

  • That is sweet but I really don't want to be controlled by a GPS.

  • they sell moller skycars on firebox.com! £324,000! so good!

  • This concept is genius and with some tweaking would work tomorrow, but the only problem is; how long it would take to commercialise. If it was for sale not every single person would go out a buy one, nor would they have the money, so that would mean mass producing them and manufacturing the navigation system to keep it safe would not nearly be economically viable. The car took 30 years to commercialise and to stop people using horses. So this just isnt realistic in the next 40 years.

  • Seems to me that his would significantly increase our fossil fuel usage, per person, at a time when the availability of cheap/easy-to-find oil is becoming more and more scarce. Not exactly the smartest thing.

  • @7eardstapa7

    actually the skycar runs on 100% ethanol

  • 50 mile plus trips are often done by lorries, delivery drivers, families going on holidays with luggage or people going on trips with bikes etc. it's a nice concept but it would require a bit more room than it has!

  • car x plane = helicopter =.=''

  • @emoboi951 I didn't know you could drive around a helicopter?

  • @emoboi951

    Idiot + internet = Asshole posting shit over internet.

  • One problem that is pretty apparent when you look at the design of moller's skycars is that there is nothing to give it lift for when it is actually supposed to fly(not just hover). I think it is a good idea, but more work needs to be done to make a better model.

  • this guy is full of shit and robbing share holders

  • I think it is pretty good idea, exept for the fact that car crashes are bad enough. Now if we take it to the skies, people wouldn't have high-jack an airliner to recreate 9/11...

  • Dear Paul Moller, If you wish to make the skycar more popular, take a public speaking class.

  • roads where were going we dont need roads

  • Moeller has the same idea that has been around for a long time. I just rechecked his website after oh 3 years and a new video has this thing untethered and it loud as hell. He says 65db(goal) yea good luck with that. No way people would go for those loud ass things in a neighborhood. I know I would be pissed.

  • I've been following this for the last 15 years....this will NEVER come to pass.

    Dreams from a Dreamer...

  • the REAL fly cars are what we call UFO once this secret technology is replaced by something better the Government will release it to the public. it just what happened to the internet, cell phones with camera and video and digital touch screens the governments were the only entities to have access to them on the past.. I guess we have to wait 50 or 100 more years to own our own UFO

  • I like the concept, but i would like it better if i could pilot the thing myself, rather than a computer flying it for me

  • @SukhvirSingh13 Well, you probably could. After a lot of classes. And money.

  • @SukhvirSingh13 I'm sure people will find out how to modify these for manual flight if the option is not given for people with valid pilot licenses and training.

  • The disbelievers always just get in the way or make it all take longer to happen.

  • BobbyFromNJ: Smart! Thank you for paying attention and for staying optimistic.

    shon231: Dumb! The Harrier Jump Jet may have been the first to use VTOL in this way, but it's not the same thing.

    I understand that a lot of you are pessimistic about this, but wasn't it the same way about flying in the 19th century. Back then, flying was a ridicules dream and would never be achieved. But on the 17th of December, 1903, Orville Wright completed the first controlled flight in history. Stay optimistic

  • IDIOT!!!!!!!!! JUMPJET HAD THE CONCEPT FIRST,.

  • I've been seeing this damn thing since I was in highschool 30 years ago when they were asking for investors with $1000. I wonder what those investors got for their bucks. First time I have seen it without a tether line. If it did work, it would be regulated to death because "it looks dangerous."

  • When you write "skycar" on your vehicle, what should press call it ?

  • @btate74 1. watch?v=9KOr5rMzk1U 2. watch?v=ezJhl3pYXqY 3.watch?v=vNtFpqYc0e4&feature=­related 4. watch?v=CDS5O4e2eZQ 5. watch?v=3Non68mkVJc 6. watch?v=NrzXLYA_e6E 7. watch?v=yyU7Cs9eVrE 8. watch?v=XCbrEbEyheM 9. watch?v=dDl6gd4y65g 10. watch?v=COe1iD7b9Vg ... TA DA
  • I used to have a lot of respect for TED not anymore, Moller is a KNOWN FRAUD!!! come on bankrupcy filed, the car is a failure!!!

  • @Paramedicguy

    Im sorry, but bankruptcy is not, "failure" it is mearly financial ruin.

    You see, before there were seat belts, alternating headlights and other creature comforts that you see in our cars today, they came from a man named, "Tucker". The big car companies used PR agents and basically crushed him to financial ruin, however, they stole his inventions and we use them today without thinking about where they come from.

    Bankruptcy does no mean failure.

    Look at the life of Walt Disney!

  • that thing would always be expensive and who the fuck buys flying cars..and they already invented a helicopter and I only know one person that owns one.. so give up your dream Paul

  • the skys would be wayyyyy to crouded.

  • In the skycar rescue wouldnt the jet engines be to loud for the person to just walk in that little cramp spot like he is walking through a door

  • i love it!!!  COOL

  • Was there anything this cool at TED 2010?

  • He looks like James Hetfield's grandpa.

  • Ooh, he's a smooth little prick, isn't he.

    He should have said that the difference between the helicopter and the Skycar is that the helicopter actually works!

    This guy makes Jim Bede look like Mother Theresa!

  • @schlusselmensch

    Of course he's smooth! :)

    He's had decades to practice his BS presentation.

  • i think its a great idea. to all disbelievers FUCK YOU

  • @bobmarleyt3 Hey tough guy, how much of your money are YOU willing to invest? LOL!

  • @bobmarleyt3

    wtf, why wouldn't anyone believe this.. it's just obvious that this exists, it's just not profitable or advanced enough yet..

    Yeah, we go to the moon in a rocket, but ow yeah, that's recorded in a studio, right..

  • @bobmarleyt3 That's very un-Marley, brother.

  • @bobmarleyt3  You are intitled to your opinion but you could express yourself more intelligently.

  • @schaskins1 what undermines his intelligence?

  • Fuck you, add a gd flight stick or gtfo w/ ure gay ass invention. Im a pilot wanna be and i wanna fucking fly bitch

  • He states this at 8:15

  • Ask Mr Moller about the over heating probs on his Fantastic Engines! The only Efficient thing moller produces is Utter Bull Crap!! I think the S.E.C. should take another look at this Snake oil salesman.

  • What happened to the Autogyro? They're much simpler, cheaper, more fuel efficient and can be made to take off and land on a very short runway.

    Of course, even with a working skycar, the big problem I predict is crowded airspace! If you have hundreds or thousands of these flying into and out of city limits, the risk of collisions would probably be a lot greater than I'd care to accept. Trying to control traffic into some pattern just slows it down to the point it's no faster than cars.

  • @StvErick9 thats what people thought about cars?

  • So in another 40+ years and $200 mil, that thing will actually move forward? Amazing. Some day, maybe Moller's SkyCar will perform as good as Hiller's flying platform from 1955 (watch?v=aFS6pMvkjo8).

    This guy gives underachievers a bad name. He's the envy of every Nigerian banker though.

  • Oopsie!

    Moller must be running low on funds again. Time to fleece some more suckers aka "investors."

    This jerk has been taking people's money for 30+ years, always promising that his skycar is "just around the corner." The guy should be in prison by now.

  • Moller has been saying the same exact thing for over 30 years. He is completely wrong about air travel, his ideas for flight are not viable. He has no comprehension of what society needs in the form of flying cars.

  • this is a piece of crap its 550,000$

  • How can you say that this is a Piece of Crap?? The Tech involved in this baby is extremely impressive. It Has 4 WANKER engines that run on Bull Crap. The only problem with running on Bull Shit is that not many gas stations are stocking it at this time? So the only way of toping up tank is to go directly to mollers mouth..... Although i have heard that his mouth n ass are as one? so at least you have two options!

  • yeah right ... not happening like in 20 years xD

  • u gotta have hope .....

  • I wonder what this kind of travel would do to far away places that benefit from being far away... Something like a fourth frontier.

  • In March of 1944, Nicholas Alkemade was the tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber on a night mission to Berlin when his plane was attacked by German fighters. When the captain ordered the crew to bail out, Alkemade looked back into the plane and discovered that his parachute was in flames. He chose to jump without a parachute rather than to stay in the burning plane. He fell 18,000 feet, landing in trees, underbrush, and drifted snow. He twisted his knee and had some cuts, otherwise fine.

  • How could it possibly be safe if the cars are going THAT fast?

  • These "cars" are so called volantors, a new class of power-lift aircraft. A small, compact VTOL personal air vehicle, that flies automatically, with the aid of computers (advanced software, programming, etc.) , sensors and electronic/virtual "airways", using GPS and internet like technology.

    People don't fly them by themselves.

    But a legitimate question nevertheless.

  • Maybe they have a special stopping system because it's not the speed that kills it's when you stop.

  • AKA Inertia.

  • yes lol the car looks pretty good but it should have some more space.

  • well, it's crashing into things that is dangerous, it's not a given speed that's a hazard, it's changing speed too fast (ie: smacking into something, or for that matter being at a standstill and having something fast hit you).

    If you're 3 miles up, gravity will take a while to bring you down, especially with a chute.

    There are stories of people falling from 25,000 feet with no chute, and they've survived if they've had their fall broken by snow or a glass roof.

  • planes go a fuck ton faster in most cases.

  • yeah we know than go fly a plane than .. and stop complaining ....

  • I dont really like this idea. It promotes urban sprawl and inefficiency...

  • u can buy 1 on firebox 4 £324,00!

  • I think he should use helium tanks around the sky car to make it lighter.

  • Uh huh. A whole balloon full of helium can make a .01 oz. piece of rubber fly, that wouldn't really effect a one ton beast.

  • A good suggestion, and it's safe. But helium is unfortunately quite expensive, and they'll need it already for the blimps and airships in the future, for goods and raw material transport through the sky.

  • poor guy.. there are so many obstacles to moving to the flying car.. but press on ..actually i like the Israeli one better with the fan in the middle pointing down.. but factor in weather and wind and they all have problems...

  • That Isreali design looks like the cockpits are pretty crampt. Having the rotor built around the cockpit would probably be much easier and safer.

  • they have these now, if we are learning of this then it's been around for at least a decade. that is just the way it has gone since the begining of stolen knowledge kept from the public for the elite who cant wait for the culling to be done w/so they can break out w/this kind of technology and into mt. rushmoore to make condo which they will fly their cars right into.

  • Did I miss something or did he not say one word about why he isn't selling them right now?

  • They're on track to produce 40 of these in 2009.

  • LOL.  Yea...

    And I've got some gorgeous beachfront property to sell you....right here in the middle of Aridzona!

  • @danond

    It's mid 2010 and not one has been built. I'm shocked! LOL 

  • Vegasoon... Moller's website tells us that his most advanced vehicle still has not transitioned from a hover to forward flight. Now, if you wanted to prove the concept and bolster investor confidence in this thing, I would guess that you would START with that, rather than day dream more body configurations and focus on sleek Euro Styling. Make an ugly prototype that PERFORMS!!!!

  • Gotta admit. It does look good.

  • Yeah. Nice lawn ornament!

  • HALF OF THE LECTURE WAS!

    For a kick off, they are not ready.

    They are still researching and producing an engine with a power to weight ratio that is high enough to be viable.

    ect. Please watch the video.

  • after airways is teleportation! :D

  • Anyone else notice how his prototype vehicles from the 60's 70's and 80's look a lot like UFOs? I wonder how many people saw one of these flying around and thought it was a UFO....

  • Psilo... I think the number of people who mistook the saucer Skycar for UFOs could be accurately estimated at somewhere around ZERO. This thing never flew beyond the confines of that little yard.

  • Yah you're probably right, but it's funny to think about

  • yeah my dad built the engines for the moller skycar

  • my dad built the grounds on which ur dad built the engine and my dad gave the idea to moller and my dad also built and invented the universe :D

  • my dad invented the question mark

  • skycars wow...

    ...

    Hey, now work on jetpacks please!

  • Yo realize...that's how automobiles used to be? Oh you don't..well then i'm gonna let you read this post and catch up. Lol

  • Well neither could they but now we've got 'cheap' cars. You have to invest in it first.

  • He's not suggesting everyone needs a skycar.

  • that how everything starts... when the first ever cars came out... it was only the rich folks driving it... then eventually as more and more cars came out the prices started to get lower... you sound like my grand pa telling me that his horse drawn carriage is way better than my 2nd hand car... hahahaha...

  • theres no powerplant strong and light enough for a flying car ....yet

  • Yes there is, it's the rotapower engine.

  • Whatever this guy's up to, its comin.

  • This guy is an absolute KOOK--working on his worthless design for several decades and $40 million with absolutely NOTHING to show for it. A waste of resources--milking gullible shareholders out of their money. This car he so confidently speaks of has never been flown untethered by a crane! This guy, sadly, needs to get a life.

  • Well, he has a PERSONAL fortune of over 46 million dollars, I'd say he's doing all right out of his scam.

  • Another white man breakthrough that the Asians will rush like hell to catch up with and modify to death.

  • i think, in the future, people will just stay at home and go to work in virtual reality offices from their home computers hooked up to the internet.

  • god I hope not. Unfortunately, for a lot of people these days going to work is the only social contact they ever get.

  • I want my freakin' flying car!!!!

  • Be patient, the solution is on it's way.....

  • he seems like a really angry frustrated individual

  • I think I'd rather get a helicopter....

  • Helicopters are perhaps the most dangerous flight vehicles around today...

  • hahahaha!! xD why in the world did he only mention the weak Rx8??... o_0

  • I admire his determination, and the machine would be bad-ass, but I remember seeing this on the cover of popular mechanics as a kid in 1991, looking just as it does now.

    Automation will make this more practical, but I think there is still a long way to go. Fuel efficiency is also a major issue today.

    Also, if you already have to go to a volanterport, why not just take a little electric car and fly a more efficient aircraft with high aspect ratio wings?

  • Woah, I just heard him say in the next 10 years. Dream on pal!

    Woahhhhh, how can you possibly think that?

  • Absolutely would be a wonderful concept. I think after such a thing is completed we would have to use imminent domain to make long stretches of some kind of barren road system that would allow for such a vehicle to drop safely without causing damage.

    This would have to be on AUTOPILOT ONLY! No person should be allowed to drive this themselves.

    Fuel efficiency, well we have it already. Geo-thermal energy with electric engines. Safety will come much later but we know it is possible.

  • bad idea. boring conference. only kids would think of such a bad idea: a flying car??? wtf, so useless and disconnected with the needs of consumers. it's just a nice idea for kids (COOOOL :PPPP) in cartoons, just like transformers or star trek.

    and so not fuel efficient, and sooo dangerous if it falls wtf!! lol

  • yeah seriously, using a gasoline motor on a metal frame instead of a horse. putting gas stations on every corner. dream on person. that will only happen in comic books! wink wink

  • hehe yeah, for sure. but the thing is we CAN do it today but won't because we don't NEED this thing. it's a matter of demand: the market. people don't need this thing. cause 1/way too expensive, and consumes lots of energy, 2/it's really dangerous if you fall, and people will be kind of afraid. maybe one day yes, but for now staying attached to this prototype may be a bit 'unreasonable' right now--that's my impression. but one day...yep I'm pretty sure we will!

  • we will definately be using these by the time we reach a level 1 civilization

  • There is a demand for it, a HUGE demand!

    All those people sitting in horrible traffic jams everyday, eating op massive amounts of time, money and fuel.... and creating emissions.

    Living on a rural/remote/residential, lowly crowded area wich is affordable, while be able to commute to work, in a densely crowded, very expensive area hundreds of miles away, every day. Wouldn't that be good?

  • I heard a lot of talk but very little action, I first read about this thing over ten years ago and they don't even have a proper working prototype.

  • This guy has been touting this thing on Coast to Coast AM for decades and needs a crane to get it off the ground. He's always looking for investers. If he could get one model to just fly off properly he would get all the money he needs. They made a working car in England which is going to drive and fly down to Africa. But it tows a glider wing like 30 feet behind it.

  • Comment removed

  • He doesn't mention that Wankel engines (especially the tuned up he uses) produce tremendous amounts of heat. How is he going to keep that in control?

  • this is insanity! Look at the dust it kicks up,, the noise,(think 100 ) can you say maglev, can you say public transit. The car and individual transport jhas isolated all of us. Go wankle!

  • As amazing as I think this is, I doubt the average stupid American can handle operation a vehicle of such power.

  • This nut is way below the TED standard. Did they just invite him for the comedy value?

  • wow,great dream,but hello reality,give some drunk hillbilly the chance to pimp out one of these bad boy's.

  • When's the last time you saw a drunk hillbilly with $100 grand?

  • People's won't be flying these volantor, the AI within the vehicle and the external electronic infrastructure does.

  • @btate74

    I posted 10 of EM' fer ya!

  • @btate74 last time i gave him 100grand

  • @btate74 The Jackass movies and series.

  • It's not really energy efficient for everyone to have their own flying cars. Hell, we can barely support having all these cars. Do you really think we need these flying machines? Also people are idiots. Do we really need to give them the ability to fly around?

  • He clearly stated these would be piloted via computer assitance, not humans.

    The fact that we can barely support cars, given that we can make no more highways supports the plausibility of personal air flight.

  • I'm saying we can barely support a relatively simple machine, compared to a much more complex one. Everyone is going to now want their own flying car, something that's just not possible for at least the next 20 years. Flying buses would make more sense, economically. I think the days of the car are ending, and there will never be another mode of transportation like it.

  • Costs will drop, as well R&D will be earned back.

    Plus fuel consumption will decrease with newer, further developed models in the future after the first models entered the market.

    (sure, it first starts with the happy few, a toy for the wealthiests among us, then the upper class (100k's of income each year), the upper-middle class, and eventually the normal working class, the average citizens.)

    The same way it went with automobiles.

  • Look, people are generally stupid. There are enough car accidents and car related deaths already, why would you give idiots a highly sophisticated and possibly dangerous machine...that can fly? Why not give everyone their own Cessna and pilots license?!

    It's bad enough that idiots can drive around, I would hate to see what would happen if they flew around.

  • If you paid attention you would have seen that the aircraft would be under strict control of a nav system and under no circumstance would it be piloted by any passenger. It wouldn't be too hard to accomplish at first while air traffic was low.

  • So... This takes more energy than a car to operate... at a time where you guys want to get rid of dependency on foreign oil and maybe limit carbon emissions?

    This kind of a project is not likely to happen unless the energy industry makes enormous breakthrough.

  • This guy has been trying to market this freaking "sky car" for the last twenty-five years and, like working fusion reactors, it's no closer to actually being able to fly than it was twenty-five years ago.

    All that's changes is that he's got better computer graphics of the non-existent, non-flying sky car to raise more money to use in not actually building it.

  • a new mean for drunk drivers to entertain the masses :)

  • this would make 'cops' so much more explosion-y

  • I wouldn't want to live in a county that had noisy cars flying around overhead.

  • And it runs on AIR!

  • First on gasoline, diesel, and eventually hydrogen.

  • People are bad enough drivers when on the road. Imagine how crappy they'll be in the air...

  • your answer is at 8:07

  • The people wont be driving the skycars, there would be a computer that makes the skycar move after you've put down your designation.

  • So far this is useful only in 007 movies.

    #1 problem is power source and power supply. Flying everyone around takes lots of energy per mile, and there is no reliable power source now available to make this possible.

    Lets think about electric cars and a wind energy supplied grid as a far more achievable transportation goal.

  • Maybe in 300 years this will be somehow possible. Problems are safety, noise, cost, what fuel/energy (not fossil) to use, pollution needs to be very small ect...

    To me this is not going to happen