Researchers from Nagoya University and Keio University in Japan have estimated a person's stress levels caused by the sound of a flying car passing overhead. The research was published in the Technical Journal of Advanced Mobility in September 2022.
The drone market is booming, as several automobile companies and start-ups develop new personal aircraft. The long-awaited flying car, made famous in films like Blade Runner, may soon be a common sight in cities around the world. But while the automobile industry is busy developing technology to catch up to fantasy, few inventors or science fiction authors have thought much about how noise from the roaring and whirring of flying car engines might affect people's psychological state. Professor Susumu Hara of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering at Nagoya University, the lead author of the study, points out that in past industrial revolutions, people often prioritized technological advancement and economic demands over social and environmental issues, including noise and air pollution. "Unless technology is well-integrated in our daily lives," he argues, "we cannot expect it to make our society a better place." Therefore, his team conducted an experiment to estimate people's stress levels as if they were living in a world with flying cars.
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