Alby_da_Wolf on 19 February 2017
| Teeqoz said: Hovercrafts will never replace today's cars. It will never be more efficient to waste a lot of energy to keep you suspended in the air than to just use all the energy to create forward motion. (And no, this isn't comparable to planes... planes are used because they can achieve really high speeds, which they can partially because they are flying at a much higher altitude, thus avoiding a lot of air resistance that we meet at ground level.) |
This. Levitation at ground level, when tech is both ready and suitable for the purpose, can be efficient, and actually save energy too, with magnetic devices, but this cannot be done everywhere, expensive magnetic railways are needed, and maglev vehicles cannot currently run outside of them. Hybrid maglev vehicles that run as maglevs where "magways" are available and on wheels elsewhere could become a possible developmant of transports too. Hovercrafts and other hovering vehicles that float by blowing air OTOH will probably always be specialised vehicles and not general purpose ones.
