Do you think you will drive a flying car in your lifetime?

It's called an airplane.

 

i dunno. 9/11 may have pushed that back a tad bit.

 

it's not the car, but the system that would be too complicated. They could make useable cars today, but changing from an on the ground to in the air system might be impossible. Not saying it won't eventually happen...it may, but it won't be for a long time.

So will I drive a flying car in my lifetime? Maybe, but just as a thing to do off in a secluded area, not as a regular commute.

 

I think that there will be flying cars in my lifetime, but I don't think I will be able to drive one (I think the price will not have dropped enough for me to be able to get one).

I've been following Moller's skycar for a long time. Until recently, I was optimistic about it.

The air traffic infrastructure will be in place - that's a HUGE hurdle.

Moller's original designs for a skycar had it functioning on regular gasoline. That was good. But the design has changed and it now requires ethanol. That's not good - in order to gain mass appeal, it needs to run on gasoline (being that gas is so easily obtained).

 

People already suck butt at driving regular cars on regular roads.

How the hell are we supposed to trust Joe Idiot to fly a plane to work?

 

You won't.

The Moller skycar (and vehicles like it) will be MUCH more difficult to control and fly than a regular car. In fact, the Moller Skycar needs an on-board computer just to keep it balanced.

So, the government is creating an automated air-traffic control system for tiny aircraft which will be in place within the next decade (if things go on schedule).

Bottom line - you would get in your sky car, enter your destination to the on-board computer, and the sky car would drive for you (autopilot). And so would everyone else's skycars.

Also, since your travel through airspace is 7-dimensional (North, South, East, West, Up, Down, and time) as opposed to ground travel which is five-dimensional (North, South, East, West, and time)... those extra two dimensions (up and down) make a HUGE difference for traffic, and there would be practically no traffic jams in the air (with the exception of waiting for a specific landing space to clear).

In the event of system or power failure, the skycar lets out parachutes. It ain't perfect, but I bet that the system described above would result in a LOT fewer deaths each year (proportionally) than travel in regular cars.

 

I think we will see them, but I think that the design will be a little different from sci-fi movies .

 

So you have to have somewhere to go, have to know where you're going, not drive by something and say, let's turn in there, etc.

I'm no Starbucks junkie or anything, but I rarely find myself sitting at home thinking, I'm going to go to Starbucks....instead I'm out, thirsty, driving to somewhere and pass by a Starbucks.

I'm not saying this isn't solve-able, but there are clearly a lot lot lot more issues at hand than just the ones you addressed.

 

I think it is going to take a while for the technology and infrastructure to be viable for a mass release to the public.

I'm also still a little concerned about breaking down while airborne too.

We may see flying cars, but I don't think I will be driving/flying one.

 

If we do have them, I don't think they will near anything like we expect.

If you told someone at the beginning of last century that people in 100 years would be traveling in car in the hundreds going 80 MPH all within feet of each other, they would think you were tripping. They still have horse and buggy in mind.

If they do resemble a car (not a personal jet), then they won't be running on any type of fossil fuel. It will be a revolutionary change in technology that will allow this to happen.

 

I just can't see it happening.

I don't think there is a big enough need or demand that would be the impetus for making this change.

I imagine there is a lobby or two that would be opposed it as well.

 

Certanly. My two-sentence description definitely doesn't cover the entire system. And certainly there will be drawbacks (just as there are with road travel), but I think the benefits will greatly outweigh the drawbacks.

(and you could just change the destination in the flight nav computer during flight and it will rebuild your flight plan to take you to the Starbucks that's just ahead, or turn you around if you just passed it. Consider, also - no red lights. No U-turn lanes. No oncoming traffic. No speed traps. No illegal left turns.)

 

Are you talking about the flying car, or the horseless carriage?

 

I think you might have just identified the first lobby against it....

 

Kitt, The General Lee? P-SHAW!



McQueen flew every day in his '68 GT.