2015, time for flying cars?

[gmpd2000]

Back to the Future must be right! I can't imagine a 2015 without hoverboards, flying cars, powerlaces, that auto dryer jacket, etc.

If that's not true, i will go to Robert Zemeckis's house and force him to create those things.

[Nuke]

three of those have been done so far so at least were on the right track.

[megatiger78]

three of those have been done so far so at least were on the right track.

what 3? I NEED TO KNOW THAT

[Kinglet]

Flying cars are useless to be used by average people as they will use too much energy.

[Fr8monkey]

There are other things too...

[dryer_lint]

One thing I didn't get at all about Back to the Future was: If you're going to make flying cars, then what's the point of restricting them to a highway?​ Isn't the whole idea of flying cars being able to fly directly from one spot to the other?

[Bill Phil]

You need to regulate air traffic much more than the current amount, so a highway would make that easier. Just, highways would be straight in the air. You can argue that there already is air highways, since planes generally fly straight to their destinations.

[Duke23]

Flying cars as we'd think of them now would just get people killed... We can't even drive on the road correctly, it's in no way a good idea to send Joe Everyman up in the air with a 2 ton missile. But there is technology in the works (and some of it pretty far along) that lets cars drive themselves, to some extent if not fully. Once that's perfected then flying cars may be a reality.

However, I'll take my hoverboard now please and thanks.

[Flymetothemun]

One thing I didn't get at all about Back to the Future was: If you're going to make flying cars, then what's the point of restricting them to a highway?​ Isn't the whole idea of flying cars being able to fly directly from one spot to the other?

The only thing that I can think of is protecting buildings. If you're flying in the city you have to stay within certain routes/paths and you can't deviate too much from them for safety purposes, but out in the country where there aren't as many tall buildings, people can just fly directly from one spot to another, making sure that they don't hit anybody. A metaphor I can think of is traffic lights vs. stop signs. You can only go when the traffic light says you can and everything is coordinated and synchronized, but with stop signs you can go whenever you want if it's safe and you won't hit anybody or pose a safety risk.*

As for safety training & licensure, I think that there could be a separate class of license for flying cars vs. normal cars, like how here in America there's usually a standard license that's easy to get and that you can operate most vehicles with, but to drive semi trucks and other such vehicles you have to get a CDL (Commercial Driver's License) that's harder to get and ivolves more comprehensive and in-depth testing. To drive "ground cars" you can get a "ground license", but if you want to drive a flying car and get to places faster you can get a "flying license". I realize this sounds a lot like a Driving License vs. Pilot's License-type situation, but if flying cars were to be invented they'd probably have to be far less complex than a plane to operate so that the public would buy them, a computer would take care of most of the complex tasks, but a Pilot flying an aeroplane would have to learn how to do these complex things themselves. If such a licensing system was in place there would also probably be some restrictions on where you could go and what you could do with a Flying License, possibly multiple grades and types would be invented for what you could see yourself doing (no need for a license that allows you to go from one country to another if you just stay in town all the time, as an example), but a Pilot's License would have far less restrictions. I could ramble on for much more than this about a licensing system, but it would probably activate some sort of forum "character limit" or something to that effect.

*I realize this may be a bit of an oversimplification/hyperbolization and that it may be far from the truth, but I'm using it as an illustrative example.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Flymetothemun

[LordFerret]

The seeming majority of people on the roads these days can't drive as it is... and you want them to fly? Lord help us.

[LABHOUSE]

The year is not over, most of those things are possible, just expensive/we have another solution.

[RocketPilot573]

Jeez, I can't believe I completely forgot about this! Someone invent these things ASAP.

[lajoswinkler]

One thing I didn't get at all about Back to the Future was: If you're going to make flying cars, then what's the point of restricting them to a highway?​ Isn't the whole idea of flying cars being able to fly directly from one spot to the other?

Airplanes use highways, too. They're called corridors or airways.

You can sometimes see them when the high tropospheric conditions are right to cause ice precipitation. It's what ignorant nutters call "chemtrails".

Now imagine if plane operators decided to fly the things as they please. Even with defined corridors we get (rarely, but still) mid air collisions.

Flying cars are supposed to lower the friction, but their energy consumption is ridiculously high and thus they are useless. They exist, but they are simply useless, noisy machines.

[Whirligig Girl]

Instead of flying cars, the more practical thing opening up in the near future is driving cars.

[Kinglet]

Instead of flying cars, the more practical thing opening up in the near future is driving cars.

And hyper loops and inter-city maglevs.

[megatiger78]

And hyper loops and inter-city maglevs.

and SSTOs that go to cycler stations.

[FishInferno]

We have flying cars, they are just still in development and not mass-produced yet. There is a street-legal flying car that you can buy for -insert too much money here-.

And we have made hoverboards as well, but they can only hover over certain materials. Magnetism i think