So we might see Dubai employing hoverbikes by 2020. There’s only one issue with this that I can see, well there’s a few actually but one that really stands out above the rest. How in the world do we justify calling this a hoverbike? Seriously it’s a lightweight frame held aloft by four spinning fans that look way too vulnerable to anything that might happen to come racing by or get lobbed into their path.
Plus the thing can only hover so high with a passenger on it and can only go around 43 miles an hour. Plus, and this is the kicker it would seem, it can only remain aloft for about 25 minutes. Any more than that and it seems apparent that it must come down to be recharged. It seems like a fine idea but when you put the word ‘hover’ in front of anything your mind tends to back to the reliable image of a hoverboard from Back to the Future part II, right? That was actual hovering. It could remain off the ground without any assistance and could carry a passenger without giving up a serious amount of altitude. And when it was given an added power boost it was really something special.
Plus there’s another danger that might be easily remedied but so far seems to be problem. What if the rider stops too suddenly or loses their balance and falls backward? The result could either be a nasty spill from a moderate but non-lethal height, unless the person falls wrong, or a deadly fall into those madly spinning rotors. Honestly, think about how fast those things have to spin and then think about what that could do to human flesh. Wearing a coat, jacket, or anything over your arms would only deter the thing for so long, and even if it shorts out before really doing any damage, it’s still shorting out and dumping you forcefully to one side of the bike, and possibly causing the thing to go into a serious spin that could dump you anyway.
The idea of a hoverbike is great, it’s something that might revolutionize the police force in Dubai and could make things very difficult for any offender being pursued by the police. But if this is the wave of the future as it stands so far then being a criminal in Dubai just got easier, especially if this thing is going to replace police cars. I don’t think that would happen but it would be almost comical, from a distance, if it did. For one, all a criminal would need to do would be to last long enough in a chase to wear down the hoverbike’s power source, and then they’d be able to gain some distance. Then, think about this, if they really wanted to cause some mayhem it’d be fairly easy it seems to knock those rotors out of commission. They’re not shielded at this time and likely as not they won’t be fully enclosed when the final vehicle is rolled out.
Good idea, but so far lackluster execution.
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