Paul mentions it only in passing … pilot certificate. But there’s a lot more here than just rider (?) qualification that those companies and their investors seem to conveniently ignore.
There’s no way in this reality that vehicles of this kind will simply be allowed to buzz around whichever way they like. There’s a whole slew of regulations that needs to be created. Are those things meant to follow roads? If yes, how far above ground? There are obstacles like power lines, traffic lights, underpasses… If you need to follow the line of cars in front of you, what’s the point?
Or will they be allowed to criss-cross the landscape freely? What about private property or installations with restricted access? How can they protect themselves from unauthorised overflight? How do you enforce those rules? Are cops going to go on patrol in the air and force offenders to land, like a pair of F-18s?
The only solution here would be to require these vehicles to adhere to MSAs and make them part of the rules of the air rather than the ground. So now you’re sitting out in the open, on a vehicle with no glide or autorotation capability (as far as we know), with spinning bone shredders all around you, 1000 ft above a city. Or your sharing the narrow airspace between the skyscrapers and airplane territory with sightseeing helicopters and that other miracle-in-waiting - unmanned drone taxis.
I don’t think so.