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Flying Cars Will Never Be A Thing
It’s 2022, and we still don’t have flying cars. Freedom in the skies and beating traffic sounds great … except this won’t be a reality. Here’s why flying cars won’t work. 👇👇
Practicality: 🛠️
The idea of flying cars came about so we could get to our destinations quicker. However, flying cars aren’t practical for short ranges (might as well walk, drive or take public transport). It’s not practical for long ranges due to fuel constraints, you’d rather take a train, bus, or plane. For mid ranges, you need a clear take-off, and your destination needs to be suitable for landing. That means it needs to be a well-lit, well-maintained landing strip / pad. Also, you can’t fly during a rainstorm or high winds. Not to mention that mass-adoption would mean that flying cars aren’t allowed to fly over human settlements, military bases, airports and high voltage cables. Oh, and the countryside isn’t a free-for-all either, there’s nature reserves and migratory bird routes that must be avoided. So, in the end, it will be a designated air route that most flying cars must follow.
Costs: 💲
Besides the obvious price tag of a flying car, it’s gonna be a pain to maintain. Its lightweight body for flight also means it’s more fragile, so a dent from opening the car door is an expensive one. Plus, that damage could be a flight hazard, affecting its performance in the skies. So, yeah, a dent on the wing would mean a trip to the workshop.
Safety: ⛑️
1.17 million deaths occur each year worldwide due to road accidents, the translation to the skies would be worse. In-air collisions would probably be rare but falling cars due to malfunction onto urban areas would be a disaster on its own. Drunk driving is bad enough, drunk flying doesn’t need to be a thing.
I think flying cars won’t take off besides some niche application or for joyrides like helicopter tours. You could call me a pessimist based on this thought exercise, but I’d rather see advancements in public transport and high-speed rail than personalised flying hazards in my lifetime. Do you agree or disagree? Tweet me and we’ll discuss! 🐣
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