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Comment by meristem | Hacker News Reader

They are not in road traffic, they will create air traffic. Airspace management is a thing. Since at least 2010 there's been research around drone integration within airspace infrastructure management and I am bullish on software/hardware to keep all that traffic straight. Also bullish on new areas for insurance products...

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Why not just fly them over roads? The network is already there to reach any residence and it's less noisy than a car. A crash would probably not hurt anyone, and assuming the crash rate is insignificant, they would probably reduce the overall incidence of traffic accidents, considering the likely reduced number of cars (the delivery services that will be displaced).

A crash won’t hurt anyone? Did you see the size of that drone in the article? Having that land on top of your car or MC could very well cause significant damage, I should think.

No worse than crashing into another car, I would think.

I know very little about automotive engineering, but I would suspect that cars are built to withstand impacts on the X-Y axis, not the Z-axis.

They are designed to not crush you if they roll over and I'm pretty sure that drone doesn't weigh more than a car.

The main risk I can see are if it comes straight at your windshield or you're on a motorcycle.

A crash would definitely cause a lot of damage, these drones are huge and think about what's on the road.

How high? Do these roads cross established instrument departure and approach routes? How do you ensure separation?

Right now when you get an IFR clearance the ATC system ensures you have separation from other aircraft. This needs to be accounted for somehow.

With the right software, you could have a separation between drones of only a few feet. That would equate to trillions of drones flying simultaneously over just the USA and below 200feet.

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