That oft-dreamed future that we have all dreamt of could soon be a reality. No, your food will not be served in pill form yet but the flying car may very well soon be a reality. Glimpses of what the future would look like have almost always included some sort of flying car, be it in cartoons like the Jetsons or on the silver screen with movies like the 5th Element. For anyone who has had to commute a flying car their number one dream is probably a flying car. Well, maybe it’s a transporter from Star Trek but let’s not get nitpicky here.
A flying taxi developed by Kitty Hawk and backed by Google co-founder Larry Page is set to take to the skies in New Zealand. It is completely electric and is capable of vertical landing and take-off. It is able to transition from car to plane and can fly over 90 miles per hour and is self-piloting.
Of course they are not the only ones working on such a project. AirBus’ prototype made its first flight in February and they hope to have a version available for sale to the public by 2020. Uber is also throwing its hat into the ring but wants to work with others rather than developing their own so at the very least there are some major players involved. This is also not the first attempt by Kitty Hawk, who unveiled their prototype last spring and it was cleared for use by the FAA in sparsely populated areas. They wanted to market these to the public by the end of 2017 but so far have not done so.
Who knows, within a decade people will be able to take to the skies to avoid traffic jams. Roof space will become parking lots for these new flying cars. Rush hour will be a breeze as you zoom by all of the poor people stuck in traffic on the highway. Getting across town will never be easier and traffic lights will be only for those peons on the ground. It is every commuter’s dream and it could soon be a reality.
Like all new technology these will be expensive at first but by being piloted autonomously it helps to cut costs. Acquiring a pilot’s license is not cheap and paying someone to fly your car will not be either so automation will need to take over most of those duties. It may take awhile for the technology to be vetted so these will probably be only for the super rich to start since a human pilot will physically be needed in the beginning and insurance rates will most certainly be sky high.
There are also many legal hurdles to overcome. Local, state and federal regulations will have to be sorted out and with the FAA being very cautious with drones they will probably be even more so with a flying car . Then there will be the reaction when the first mishap inevitably happens. So, it might be more than a decade before it is a reality for the average person but we can all still dream. Now if only we could get a robot maid?