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Comment by bufferoverflow | Hacker News Reader

You would have to be making a lot of money to justify 2 such flights per day.

25 * 2 * 22 = $1100/mo = $13.2K / year.

But if you can live in a cheaper place than Palo Alto, you’ll make back that $15K per year in lower house payments. And if you only have a comfortable commute of 15-20 min each way as opposed to an hour (or more), your standard of living will be much nicer too.

House prices will adjust once air taxis take off (no pun intended).

Perhaps not. A recent study (can't remember where, but industry specific) proposed that EVTOL economics--at scale--will settle at a CASM of $3. (CASM = cost per available seat mile. Note RASM, or revenue per available seat mile, will be higher or these businesses won't make a profit.) With a CASM of $3, this study showed that only 0.03% of the Bay Area will be wealthy enough to commute on these vehicles on anything resembling a regular basis.

Bay bridge toll + gas + parking + amortized car ownership + insurance is pretty plausibly less than that already.

You will have less mobility than with a car, though,so it won't replace all of it. But I agree with your main point, the actual premium will be much lower and probably worth it, considering the time saved.

There's likely a reason they picked Switzerland, Munich, New York and California as examples ;)

I'm interested in how those prices break down. Without any more details, it's hard to know if they're realistic at all.

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