Flying cars are a major feature on
Tales of Future Past and I've always had a certain fondness for them (aside from the prospect of having one crashing through the roof of my house, of course), but according to Mike Elgin, it looks as though we won't be seeing such vehicles in the showrooms soon.
The only way "flying cars" (operated by non-pilots and flying outside the existing air traffic control system) could come to fruition is if they were completely computer controlled by some massive, centralized system that knew the location -- and controlled every movement -- of every "flying car" aloft. But turning over control to a computer system that would line everyone up into traffic jams in the sky doesn't really live up to the "flying car" vision of total freedom, either. And, in any event, this kind of system is pure science fiction. It's decades away, at best. We're not even close to having that kind of central control for cars -- controlling "flying cars" like that would be far, far more difficult and expensive, and the demand for it is much lower.
Just as well. I still haven't paid off the Honda yet.
Actually, I have some posts on the fitness of "massive centralized systems" to handle the air traffic, or ground traffic control problems on my blog.
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