Centimeter level, you say? Step 1: It starts with a geofence outline constructed from satellite imagery or city GIS data. Step 2: From here, we use surveying equipment to measure the location of three city landmarks. Only a few measurements are needed for each city. Step 3: Once the landmarks have been identified, we compare their location to the satellite imagery to determine offsets and rotations. Step 4: We then use these offsets and rotation values to shift and transform each of our original geofence outlines.
Step 5: Finally, after our geofence outlines have been updated, they are pre-loaded onto our vehicles to eliminate latency. Bird says it will be testing the new system in scooters deployed in Milwaukee and San Diego, with Madrid to soon follow.
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This alone puts a limit on the size of a flying bird. Also note a bird of prey strikes the prey in a flyby. The weights you use in your calculations can be a lot more than the maximum take-off weight. It is a very rough measure that lets you extrapolate strength and carrying capacity from small creatures to large. Strength tends to vary according to muscle cross-section which is proportional to height squared.
Weight varies according to height cubed for similarly shaped creatures. Again, rough measures. So if you magically made a swallow with twice the wingspan it would be four times as strong but weigh eight times as much. Should be required reading. Show 7 more comments. Let the image explain itself. If you weigh more than pounds, consider going to work by being pulled by the ostrich. This media file is in the public domain in the United States.
The Anathema The Anathema 5, 15 15 silver badges 34 34 bronze badges. Additionally, I suspect that the question was asking about carrying a human while flying, not walking. Perhaps we need a standard loopholes list like code golf? Show 5 more comments. Youstay Igo Youstay Igo Add a comment. Graham Graham A flesh-and-blood bird that size would be over kg. Not reasible. Argentavis apparently was around 72kg, for a 7m wingspan, and pelagornis apparently was only 22kg with about the same wingspan.
So those birds existed, and that's not an unreasonable wingspan of glider for people with a jockey-type build.
The problem of course is that those birds achieved those weights with porous bones, so whether they could take the extra weight of a rider is more of an issue. We humans with our slow reaction times manage to learn to fly low wing planes. It would be even less of a problem for a bird to learn to fly top-heavy.
Show 1 more comment. Kys Kys 5, 3 3 gold badges 14 14 silver badges 31 31 bronze badges. Alex Bv Alex Bv 11 1 1 bronze badge. I have upvoted your answer as a welcome gesture, but I suggest this is just my thought that you try to concentrate on answering the question which has been asked. Once you get some reputation points, you would be able to post comments and suggestions on other peoples' answers.
Use that ability to post comments : Until then, try to focus on the question which is asked. That would help to keep the answers from derailing from the main theme the question and stay focussed. Please don't take offense from my comment. While bird skeleton may weigh the same as a mammal of the same weight, bird skeleton weight significantly less than a mammal of the same SIZE volume.
The key to aviation is wing-loading, not total weight. This is true for airplanes as it is for birds. A toy plane with a 2m wingspan weighing 1kg is light. Another toy plane with a 50cm wingspan weighing g is heavy it should be around g to be considered light. And you still get the uncomfortable wind. And you might be in position to be pooped on. So I don't think that a giant eagle ride would be cool. All you need to participate in this zippy phenomenon is a smartphone app and a helmet -- though many riders seem to go without the latter.
Then simply locate a nearby scooter, unlock it and scoot off into the sunset. And they're tearing our cities apart. Some residents have strong feelings about the scooters and have been making those feelings known in creative ways , though not all of them are legal.
Where some see a cheap, fun mobility solution , others see a swarming invasion that puts riders and everyone around them at risk. Los Angeles, Santa Monica and other cities were largely caught off guard by the scooter craze and are racing to adopt regulations for companies and adjust safety rules for riders. The chief criticism of the scooter startups is that they've been operating on the mantra that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
City and public safety officials contend Bird, Lime and other companies just drop the two-wheelers into communities and worry about the legal framework later.
Lord said Lime has made an effort to work with local governments "as much as possible" before rolling out their scooters. A lot of pieces are still being worked out, but the California Vehicle Code covers the main rules of the road for motorized scooters.
Here's a quick guide:. In Santa Monica, the epicenter of the scooter invasion, police have been cracking down on riders with stronger enforcement of helmet and right-of-way laws. The department has also shared videos on social media explaining the do's and don'ts of scooter riding. They are as corny as you'd imagine. Remember, a very focused enforcement campaign will begin this week on scooter violations. You don't want to "press hard, three copies" aka receive a ticket.
Expect more rules and regulation in the near future. Santa Monica has a pilot program in the works, with the goal of fine-tuning city codes for how companies operate and what scooterers can and can't do.
The city of Los Angeles has proposed its own set of regulations , which include a cap on the number of scooters companies can put on city streets, a ban on any third-party advertising and no riders under The city of Long Beach is also launching a pilot program , limiting companies like Bird and Lime to a maximum of scooters.
If we know one thing about human-operated vehicles, it's that we will find ways to hurt ourselves. Electric scooters are no different, and both residents and transportation officials point to concerns about safety, not just for riders, but for pedestrians, motorists and other commuters.
There aren't hard numbers on how many accidents scooter riders have been involved in or how many injuries have happened.
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