I keep seeing tech type shows and articles that ask the rhetorical question, “where are the flying cars?” There are a few people, mostly private companies, who are researching and building prototypes of anything from simple hovercraft to actual flying vehicles (more of a VTOL than a plane.) But this is 2007, shouldn’t stuff like that be mainstream now? An entire generation of people who grew up watching television shows and movies portraying 2000 and beyond as “futuristic” are now disappointed because 2007 is no different than 1997 or even 1987 or 1977 in terms of personal transport. We’re still driving cars and flying planes, riding buses and trains. Our cars go faster (although I can’t imagine what the glory is in owning a car that does 175 mph, as there’s nowhere you can safely drive it that fast) and farther on a tank of gas. There are Segways, as well as robotic chairs so the disabled can go up and down stairs. Trains go ridiculously fast. So we can get to the same places cheaper and faster, but we’re still stuck on the ground. There’s nothing to stop a person from learning to fly a small plane or a helicopter, but this is not practical for going to and from work (unless you’re Dean Kamen perhaps.) You can drive a car to the airport and hop on a plane, then get a rental car on the other end, but we don’t have any practical, affordable vehicle that can do both. We still don’t have “transformers” that can go from car to plane and back again.
There are two issues at work here: expectations and reality. The expectation is fueled by sci-fi type media, ranging from comic books to movies. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, everything targeted the early 2000’s as “the future.” We had robot servants, flying cars, laser guns, and even bio-enhancements to extend our vision and double our strength. Much to the dismay of many, none of this has happened. Robots are still seen as expensive toys by the majority of society (AIBO and RoboSapien come to mind, along with those robots that can perform synchronized dance.) Lasers are used more for surgical procedures than surgical strikes. There are medical breakthroughs related to replacement organs, mechanical hearts, implanting chips into the brain, etc, but these are more along the lines of fixing a problem and keeping people alive when the real organs have failed. No one is injecting themselves with nanoprobes to give them a boost to their running speed. And we’re definitely not pulling a lever on our dashboards to soar above that traffic jam keeping us from getting to the mall.
The reality of it, at least when it comes to flying cars, is that we as a race are not mature enough to handle that kind of power. Every time mankind comes up with some new powerful toy, there’s the question – can we handle this? Can we control it, or will it control us? Man discovered fire, and probably burned down entire forests learning to control it. Someone figured out that you could pack a pipe with explosive powder and send projectiles at distant targets. Today thousands of people are killed by guns every year, and that’s not counting the war in the Middle East. Then someone came up with the bright idea to cause a controlled nuclear reaction, and build a weapon out of it. Those too young to remember Hiroshima need only Google it.
Now imagine the power to fly off the road in the hands of the average Joe Bagodonuts. Traffic is backed up, Joe left the house late just as he does every morning because sleeping an extra half an hour is more important than getting to work on time, but he still has to make time to stop off for that egg sandwich and coffee. However, on this particular morning there’s an accident and no one is moving. So Joe yanks back on a lever, his car lifts up off the ground, the wheels fold under, he steps on the accelerator – and slams right into the guy in front of him, who was doing the same thing.
No one can say with a straight face that people are courteous on the road. When someone is in a hurry, they are the only one that matters. Everyone else is nothing more than an obstacle, and they need to get out of the way. People pass each other at insane speeds, often making their own lane so they can be first. It’s all about being the fastest. There are highways that are so busy during rush hour that people use the breakdown lane as another passing lane. God forbid someone actually break down and have to use that lane for anything other than traveling at 95 mph. And the accidents, caused by people who momentarily forget that other drivers are just as arrogant and self-centered, and are not going to move out of the way because you stopped for an overpriced latte and are now late for work.
Imagine this happening on THREE dimensions instead of the two we have now. Bad enough people create their own lanes, cut people off, change lanes and turn without so much as a thought of using the turn signal, all the while reading a newspaper, talking on the phone, eating a donut, anything except paying attention to where they are going. Now picture this chaos with vehicles that can fly above and below other vehicles. The lanes to the right and left are blocked, so let’s try up… only someone else decided that they needed to be up, naturally they are passing you, and naturally you’re not going to actually look up to see if someone’s there, after all who would dare to get in your way? Depending on what kinda propulsion these cars have, stopping its forward momentum might mean that gravity takes over; instead of hitting a car and coming to a stop, now you hit a car, fall 20-30 feet and smack into the ground (coming to a stop, with 10 other cars hitting you because they weren’t looking up either.)
Perhaps they would have training classes required, special licenses like are now required for pilots. After all, that’s what you’d be, a pilot. Flying cars are bound to be expensive when they come out, so only the rich elite will have them to start. A few of these people will of course decide that since they are rich, they are special, and thus minor details like permits and rules don’t apply to them (watch someone driving a BMW or a Jaguar sometime if you don’t believe that.) The rich will be crashing into each other, and us normal people will get to watch them falling out of the sky like twisted metal snowflakes.
And then they will become affordable. Now the middle-class arrogant can zip around, showing off how great they are, and they too will bump into each other, drop out of the sky, and land on top of the no longer flying BMWs and Jaguars.
Maybe ten years from now, people will decide that they are not the center of the universe. Don’t expect any Star Trek type of utopia though.