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True flying cars exist. I watched one go from car mode to plane mode, fly around, land, and drive off the runway in car mode again at EAA in 2013. They work and

True flying cars exist. I watched one go from car mode to plane mode, fly around, land, and drive off the runway in car mode again at EAA in 2013. They work and they meet all the expectations we had when we were kids. Except one: They cost over a quarter million dollars. Everybody said we'd have flying cars, but nobody told us only rich people would be able to afford them.

jaclaz 7y ago
>nobody told us only rich people would be able to afford them Rich people will also have professional pilots anyway.
trilila 7y ago
Even so, rich people don't seem to be "driving" them. They can afford overpriced Rolls Royces or Bentleys but don't see them buying flying cars. Wondering why, given that the technology has been around for a while.
- scottlocklin 7y ago
  I'm pretty sure there are no quarter million dollar flying cars which are not obvious death traps. The original flying car was the light helicopter, particularly the designs by Robinson Helicopter in the 1970s. The idea was that upper middle class professionals (doctors, lawyers, maybe computer programmers, etc) would prefer to learn the helicopter and commute into the city from the countryside than drive to work. This idea didn't pan out, because many/most professionals prefer city life (once the race riots stopped in the 70s), and flying light helicopters is both difficult/stressful, extremely expensive ($200/hr) and fairly dangerous (motorcycle tier or worse). Those who do it, do it as a hobby. https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/helicopters https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/helicopters
- coldtea 7y ago
  >Wondering why, given that the technology has been around for a while. Probably because they got rich by being able to recognize a bad idea. Also, being rich, they probably want to live longer, not die in a half-baked, worst-of-both-worlds technology.
BerislavLopac 7y ago
> nobody told us only rich people would be able to afford them This is not correct: William Gibson has warned about that as early as 1993: "The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed." [0] [0] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Gibson#Quotes https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Gibson#Quotes
padobson 7y ago
These might just be early adopters in the longtail of personal flight technology. If personal flight starts as a luxury good to pay for research and development, as those innovations become widely known the price should come down to make it accessible to everyone.
dreamcompiler 7y ago
Here's the one I saw fly in 2013. Apparently I was watching the flight in this video from the ground. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RWGIDaBwCJs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RWGIDaBwCJs
lordgrenville 7y ago
This is why I hate when people say "we were promised flying cars, we got 140 characters". We totally have flying cars! We just don't use them because learning to fly safely is way too expensive and impractical for most people. (The relevant corollary being, if it wasn't, more producers would enter the market and flying cars would become affordable.)

jaclaz 7y ago

>nobody told us only rich people would be able to afford them Rich people will also have professional pilots anyway.

trilila 7y ago

Even so, rich people don't seem to be "driving" them. They can afford overpriced Rolls Royces or Bentleys but don't see them buying flying cars. Wondering why, given that the technology has been around for a while.

scottlocklin 7y ago
I'm pretty sure there are no quarter million dollar flying cars which are not obvious death traps. The original flying car was the light helicopter, particularly the designs by Robinson Helicopter in the 1970s. The idea was that upper middle class professionals (doctors, lawyers, maybe computer programmers, etc) would prefer to learn the helicopter and commute into the city from the countryside than drive to work. This idea didn't pan out, because many/most professionals prefer city life (once the race riots stopped in the 70s), and flying light helicopters is both difficult/stressful, extremely expensive ($200/hr) and fairly dangerous (motorcycle tier or worse). Those who do it, do it as a hobby. https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/helicopters https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/helicopters
coldtea 7y ago
>Wondering why, given that the technology has been around for a while. Probably because they got rich by being able to recognize a bad idea. Also, being rich, they probably want to live longer, not die in a half-baked, worst-of-both-worlds technology.

BerislavLopac 7y ago

> nobody told us only rich people would be able to afford them This is not correct: William Gibson has warned about that as early as 1993: "The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed." [0] [0] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Gibson#Quotes https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Gibson#Quotes

padobson 7y ago

These might just be early adopters in the longtail of personal flight technology. If personal flight starts as a luxury good to pay for research and development, as those innovations become widely known the price should come down to make it accessible to everyone.

dreamcompiler 7y ago

Here's the one I saw fly in 2013. Apparently I was watching the flight in this video from the ground. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RWGIDaBwCJs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RWGIDaBwCJs

lordgrenville 7y ago

This is why I hate when people say "we were promised flying cars, we got 140 characters". We totally have flying cars! We just don't use them because learning to fly safely is way too expensive and impractical for most people. (The relevant corollary being, if it wasn't, more producers would enter the market and flying cars would become affordable.)