We do have various flying vehicles that have been described as flying cars. But it’s fair to say that the Back to the Future II-style mass adoption hasn’t happened.
I’m happy with those broadly staying science fiction. People already can’t drive in two dimensions. It’s worrying to think how awful it’ll be if they’re ever given a third.
There are a far fewer pedestrians and walls and lamp posts and motorcycles in the air than on the ground, though, so there’s a lot more margin to be awful without endangering anyone other than your own family.
There’s a reason passenger planes’ safety engineering is so much better than passenger cars’: if your car just goes completely dead, you can probably still steer it somewhere safe and get out. If something goes wrong with a plane and there’s no backup system, it’s just become a glider with one chance at landing wherever happens to be available. If your flying car is in the city (and most cars are in urban areas, because most people are) there won’t be anywhere available to land, and it’s going to hit a building. If the pilot fucks up then it might be worse than a glider and just drop out of the air like a stone.
At present it takes considerable effort or lack of skill for someone to crash their car through the roof of your house. Once morons can fly, all bets are off.
Well, a car falling from the sky (car crash or ran out of gas) probably wouldn’t be very safe either. I’m absolutely not trusting the average nitwit who pays more attention to Instagram than to the road to operate something akin to a mini-plane.
Yes, but there are still pedestrians and walls and lampposts and motorcycles on the ground. I would imagine accidents would be far more disastrous and dangerous than in 2D.
~Add in people in convertibles who aren’t wearing safety restraints (or a failure of said restraints) if/when the vehicle does a 180° flip (for any reason).~
Add in people in convertibles who aren’t wearing safety restraints (or a failure of said restraints) if/when the vehicle does a 180° flip (for any reason).
Flying cars costs 10 times as much as a regular car, and are not that great at flying or driving. You need driving and pilot license. Needs to take off from an airport or request special permission. It’s just not as practical and cheap as portrayed.
TBF, flying cars in most sci-fi rely on some kind of crazy convenient anti-gravity tech that allows vehicles to hover while still somehow retaining lateral friction so they don’t drift sideways when turning.
A lot of space sci-fi spaceships have basically flown as if they are in an atmosphere, with a more-or-less aerodynamic shape and turning as if there are control surfaces in an atmosphere making them move more-or-less in the direction that the spacecraft is heading.
We do have various flying vehicles that have been described as flying cars. But it’s fair to say that the Back to the Future II-style mass adoption hasn’t happened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car
I’m happy with those broadly staying science fiction. People already can’t drive in two dimensions. It’s worrying to think how awful it’ll be if they’re ever given a third.
There are a far fewer pedestrians and walls and lamp posts and motorcycles in the air than on the ground, though, so there’s a lot more margin to be awful without endangering anyone other than your own family.
There’s a reason passenger planes’ safety engineering is so much better than passenger cars’: if your car just goes completely dead, you can probably still steer it somewhere safe and get out. If something goes wrong with a plane and there’s no backup system, it’s just become a glider with one chance at landing wherever happens to be available. If your flying car is in the city (and most cars are in urban areas, because most people are) there won’t be anywhere available to land, and it’s going to hit a building. If the pilot fucks up then it might be worse than a glider and just drop out of the air like a stone.
At present it takes considerable effort or lack of skill for someone to crash their car through the roof of your house. Once morons can fly, all bets are off.
Well, a car falling from the sky (car crash or ran out of gas) probably wouldn’t be very safe either. I’m absolutely not trusting the average nitwit who pays more attention to Instagram than to the road to operate something akin to a mini-plane.
Yes, but there are still pedestrians and walls and lampposts and motorcycles on the ground. I would imagine accidents would be far more disastrous and dangerous than in 2D.
~Add in people in convertibles who aren’t wearing safety restraints (or a failure of said restraints) if/when the vehicle does a 180° flip (for any reason).~
Flying cars costs 10 times as much as a regular car, and are not that great at flying or driving. You need driving and pilot license. Needs to take off from an airport or request special permission. It’s just not as practical and cheap as portrayed.
Helicopters are basically flying cars.
Based. This is what I post every time.
TBF, flying cars in most sci-fi rely on some kind of crazy convenient anti-gravity tech that allows vehicles to hover while still somehow retaining lateral friction so they don’t drift sideways when turning.
A lot of space sci-fi spaceships have basically flown as if they are in an atmosphere, with a more-or-less aerodynamic shape and turning as if there are control surfaces in an atmosphere making them move more-or-less in the direction that the spacecraft is heading.