The world is using more energy than ever before – but it isn’t human generated, it is AI drain. And it is a growing problem without a growing solution. Power grids are strained to the hilt, water usage at data centers is straining capacity and we’re already on rationing. Using renewable energy is NOT the solution given we already are maxed out on wind farms and solar farms that are dying a fast unsustainable death. Yet our future is MORE drain, not less. Solution?
China is testing different drone mobiles to replace automobiles. All powered by electricity. One such prototype is a ground vehicle that has a detachable electric aerial module for low altitude flying with vertical takeoff. The problem is regulating air space to mitigate crashes, which would mean retrofitting programmable GPS systems that would work somewhat like radar for flight patterns. More energy consumption. More errors.
Leading the world, China has already established mass production facilities for this futuristic development. First off the grid, will be air taxis. Flying below 1,000 meters I imagine there will be a window of errors before this becomes our new normal – and those errors could easily include, hackers, flying into buildings, electric outages, and weather anomalies such as ‘wind speeds’ given the vehicles are only 800 pounds. In addition, maximum weight of two passengers is 400 pounds, which might work in India and China – not so much in western obese tundras.
Also, you won’t be filling the backseat or trunk of your air mobile with furniture and groceries… or children. But all that will eventually be addressed.
The Voyager X2 operates like a helicopter with 4 sets of protruding blades. It is unclear whether a ‘helicopter’ license is a requirement. One of the safety features is the vehicle is equipped with a parachute – although technically at below 1000 meters a parachute deployment might save your purse – you notsomuch. For the nonprofessional parachuter, 5,000 feet is typical.
The Xpeng Aeroht is also a car with a conversion system that opens via the rooftop of the vehicle which looks quite similar to a Tesla. Again – helicopter blades. When activated, the steering wheel is sucked into the dashboard and a joystick is revealed. When the air vehicle fails, four parachutes are deployed from the vehicle landing wherever you happen to lose control or ‘fuel’. Starting price is $137,000. For places like Dubai, I imagine these will be common. Rural America? Not so much. But then we humans scoffed at driving machines and airplanes too!
In San Mateo, California the Alef Mode A comes in at a starting price of $300,000 with $1 billion in presales so far. While also propelled by blades, they have used the trunk area and beneath the hood to affix the blades and an air molded metal grid as the basis for the trunk and hood so as to not overheat. It too is designed as a helicopter with the added feature that the central coupe can rotate on the car which is also road licensed. I must say it is sleek and high tech and a beautiful piece of machinery. It is designed by two Russians, a Soviet Jew, and a Ukrainian. Proving peace is possible.
If you have any propensity toward motion sickness – Buyer Beware.
Of course, calling these sustainable because they require battery powered fuel cells, is a wholly untruthful denotation. Lithium mines consume thousands of acres each, massive amounts of water and fossil fuels to dig the mines, dynamite to blow the layers of rock, and slave labor for extraction. Health and environmental impacts are deafening: respiratory disease, heavy metal exposure, cardiovascular effects, acid mine drainage, toxic waste disposal, water contamination, groundwater depletion and a ginormous HOLE in the ground forevermore.
Until the CIA allows us to harness free sound wave or particle wave energy, we will continue to deplete and devastate. So, when a person justifies buying a lithium powered vehicle, and claims they are doing ‘their part in clean air’… a junior high school curriculum could easily vanquish that delusion and should be – required.
But the illusion must always be held in high esteem!
I quote: “In those early years of the Soviet Union, how did the Bolsheviks countenance the idea of gilded chairs, and Louis Quatorze dressers in the mansions of the wealthy homes they confiscated? Nailed to the bottom of every piece of furniture was a small copper plate embossed with a number. The number served to identify the piece as part of the vast inventory of the people. Thus, a good Bolshevik could sleep soundly in the knowledge that the mahogany bed he was lying on was not his; and despite the fact that the apartment was furnished with priceless antiques so labeled, he had fewer possessions than a pauper.”
And the justification for the delusion is thus quite concisely explained…