Growing up as kids in the late 90s and early 2000s, we were exposed to the possibility of flying cars whether it was in movies or comic books. It was every kids dream to live long enough to see this happen. We all at one point thought about what our future would like and for most of us, it was something like this. While this kind of futuristic city may be a bit unrealistic, the future of cars may surprise you. It is quite possible we could have flying cars in the near future.
As we know, technology is becoming more and more advanced nowadays. Trends in the past 10 years has shown just how much we have progressed. Brad Feld, managing director at Faundry Group, takes a look at transportation trends in recent years. Electric cars have become more popular in today’s society making for a more convenient way of transportation. According to Feld, hybrid vehicles represent 3% of cars on the road today. This is not a large number, however it us up from the 0% that were on the road just ten years ago. As for all electric based cars, there only about .1% on the road. An example of this type of car is the Nissan Leaf. Feld goes on to explain that the majority of cars will be electric in the near future. He basically states that with the improvement in battery technology and reduction in costs, electric cars will overtake gas cars by 2025. Read more about it here.
Feld brings up an interesting point in saying that building the hover car is not the problem, but rather pilot licensing is the real barrier. In fact less than one third of one percent of Americans are licensed pilots. It takes months of studying and years of training to get a license. Not to mention, pilot licenses can cost anywhere from $5000 to $10,000. So flying cars a very real possibility from a production standpoint. Feld thinks transportation will be very different by 2030 and we will finally experience the flying cars.
Forbes thinks that we will have flying cars on the market as soon as 2017! This would be incredible is we do in fact see them that soon, but could imagine how expensive they might be. A Slovakian company called AeroMobil unveiled their latest prototype of a “flying car.” They say it is an all road vehicle that can navigate between traffic and between landings and take-offs from airports. It is pretty awesome looking too and if this video isn’t the coolest thing you’ve ever seen, then I’m not sure what is.
CEO Juraj Vaculik has stated that they have big plans for the flying car to hit the market by 2017. The thought of flying cars is starting to become much more realistic. Only two more years and we could witness one of the biggest technological advances in history.
Picture taken from Forbes website