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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2160 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 16, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Anyone watch the Roadster demo last night? As expected, it had some peak Elon cringe moments, but you don't have to be a great MC when you have a flying car.

Possibly the greatest product demo of all time.

Super cool, but I am afraid it'd be the same as with jetpacks - the tech exists for a while now but it's not practically usable outside of flashy demos.

Really? Cold gas thrusters on a car? I could be wrong, but is there anyone else who’s done this? Even as a personal side project? I would have guessed there are zero other companies that could design or install this tech, let alone program the software to invert a car and do a soft landing. Maybe another aerospace company could do it, but they haven’t. In the loosest definition, we have both cars and thrusters - but there’s something special about this.

Are the other auto companies that have found ways to radically change the traction equation?

I think you misunderstood my meaning. I don't say the tech already existed, I am saying once this tech is released, even if it becomes widely known how to do it, it still won't gain common use due to various other factors - just as there are a lot of ways to make a jetpack now, but not a lot of common use of them. I am not questioning Musk's priority, just the future of it as a consumer technology.

That said, he was able to make electric car and satellite internet a consumer technology, so what do I know. Hopefully somebody will read this in ten years, point at it and laugh, calling me an idiot.

True but I feel like wireless internet and electric cars were more 'how do we get there' issues than 'this thing is of dubious desirability'. Maybe I'm too bearish on personal floatation but I wouldn't take a helicopter presently even if I were a billionaire when I'm likely getting more or less the same trade-offs with a 'abovestreet legal' flying car

I don't know, if I were a billionaire I totally would take a helicopter everywhere. Or at least like when going from the airport to the hotel and such. The problem is that it costs about 100x of what I'd pay for such a ride, based on my current net worth. If money weren't an issue, I'd totally do it.

Billionaires and centimillionaires are devoured by helicopter crashes. It is their natural predator.

Have you been in a helicopter before? Like for me it's a big drop in comfort and practicality in exchange for small time savings. I'd rather just get a normal driver and a luxury vehicle

Yes, I have, but if the alternative is between 10 minute discomfort and an hour+ in traffic, I think I'd rather take discomfort. OTOH, maybe if I am a billionaire I can use my time way more freely than I am now, so maybe my opinion would change then. That said, if fully automated taxis take over - which I think will happen pretty soon - I might change my opinion.

If you've got a driver and a top end Executive vehicle you're probably insulated from traffic

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I see. I agree there. But I am very curious to see what sort of stunts they can do with this in terms of lap times on race tracks like the Nurburgring - where pulling 2g+ corners would be sort of mind boggling.

where pulling 2g+ corners would be sort of mind boggling

The street legal times will be interesting. I don't expect the race trim times to be that mind boggling. A Porsche 919 pulls 2x the G force on corners, 3x for non-regulation prototypes of that car. Which is ballpark what F1 and Indicar pull, too.

Obviously, all three of those classes of cars are a completely different beast, aerodynamically, and 80 kW of fans can't change that.

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