Topic: "Flying" Cars = Cultural Upheaval??

[OldMan Nintendo]

Have you all seen Back to the Future 2 or (a better example, IMO) The Fifth Element?  Both of those movies had cities that were inundated with 3-dimensional traffic patterns, or to put it more simply, lots and lots of flying vehicles.  Ever since I saw BttF2 in theatres all those years ago (I now own the BttF DVD collection) I've always been interested in such future possibilities of transportation.  I could definately envision myself living in a world where a car that could drive at a max. altitude of 10,000 feet cost around $15,000, a world where gridlock was a word you'd find in the history books because "gridlock" would become a term of the past, now that multi-dimensional traffic patterns exist.

The beginnings of such a world are budding even today, for the technology is here -- not anti-gravity technology, but an actual "flying" car... if you could call it that.  Check it out:
www.moller.com

My question to all of you is this: What will it take before such things as "flying" vehicles become commonplace here on Earth?  When do you think such a day will come, a day when the term "flying" is primarily used only for trans-continental and oceanic flights?  

I personally believe that a real cultural upheaval will have to occur before we see such days... a cultural upheaval that is a sign of humanity "maturing" to another stage in sociological and intellectual evolution where we all can step out of the 2D box that we are in now and realize that we must use what is around and above us to the fullest!  

[Tman]

We will never have flying cars, people can't drive in 2d much less 3d, and when there is a 50 car pileup on the interstate it just sits there, but at 10,000 feet that all comes flying to the ground at 200mph. Flying cars will never be a reality. Ever.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

We need Star Trek teleporting stuff, pronto.

[Termin8Anakin]

There would be flying cars, I'll take you on a bet.

In the Star Wars Fact File (don't know if you guys get it in the States), they actually have a traffic system for the flying cars. You can't really fly ANYWHERE. Imagine the mayhem. What they have are those lanes (you see them in on Coruscant in Ep I and II), and special traffic droids who act as traffic lights, and like crash controls things. The problem is that there are STILL traffic jams. The only vehicles that can travel ANYWHERE are those taxis (like the one Amidala, Anakin and Jar Jar gets into in an Ep I deleted scene). These things use any means necessary to get to their destination quickly.

So even though flying cars are good, there aren't really feasible.
One GOOD thing is that you can have multiple lanes above and below you, just like in 5th Element and Star Wars. BttF doesn't have this though.
But what I like in BttF is that there are designated lanes, but you can travel higer or lower, probably minimising traffic problems - just so long as you don't build houses under them.

But imagine the midair crashes and what would happen if an engine failed? That's what I should leave to the experts.

Do you think I'm a Star Wars nerd? Well, probably. Just check my email address, nickname and avatar.  

[ThePerm]

wasnt there a team that managed to teleport a single particle from california to japan

[PIAC]

no! we should all travel in giant tubes futurama style, that would be fun

[Tman]

Using star wars as a guide to urban planning, good thinking, and it was a single photon over a distance of like 2 inches and to do it you have to destroy the original.

[PIAC]

do i detect a note of sarcasm?

are you kidding this baby is off the charts

[Termin8Anakin]

Futurama style tubes eh? Imagine the effects of "tube-sliding" (haha) over long distances, like from Sydney to Brisbane. Ouch.
I rather those cool cars-on-rails thing in Minority Report than "tube-sliding".

[Praxius]

Well before we even get to flying car being a everyday thing, we first have to make the eletric car an everyday thing. One step at a time. But Teleporting would be an easier way to travel. I won't be the first tester though.

[KnowsNothing]

uh... that car was really ugly.  really, really ugly.

[PIAC]

thank you. i dont want the avatars turned off is all

[Smithy]

speaking of ugly, you still haven't responded to my reply on your NWN thread, now thats ugly

[Ian Sane]

The problem with flying cars is the you're pretty much giving everyone the option to go offroading.  You know when you're in a traffic jam and that one guy in the 4x4 cuts across of a field and passes everybody?  Or that guy who drives over those islands in the middle of the road?  Imagine how chaotic if would be if everyone had a vehicle that could do that.  The advantage of 2D roads is that regardless of how much a person ignores traffic laws they still can't go anywhere they want and do anything.  If you go off the road your car crashes.  It's a natural barrier.  Nobody has to make a law that people can't go off of roads because most cars can't do it period.

However with 3D roads there's no real control.  You entirely have to rely on people following the rules because anyone can just fly whereever they want.  Considering the attitudes of like 60% of the driving population it would be total anarchy.  It takes a fair amount of effort for airports to make sure that planes don't crash into each other.  If every dolt could fly it would be too hard to control things.  Plus like everyone mentionned the accidents (and there would be tons) would be brutal.  There's a reason why when a plane crashes pretty much everyone dies.  Personally I think the concept of flying cars has so many hassles and risks it wouldn't be worth it.

Though in Back to the Future 2 it appears that only the freeway allows flying cars which would be really convienent and safer.  But again what happens when people crash?  Do they fall on the City below?  Things might work okay if only public transit could fly so then you would have complete control over the situation.  It would be sort of like an elevated train except it actually flies.

[manunited4eva22]

The team who did that did not actually send the same photon, they recopied the chain and made it over.

[Syl]

If we ever have some sort of easily cost effective flying "car" like machine... its still a LONG way off.
main problems:
Fuel <----- it would have to be cost effective, which leaves out fossil fuels, which will start becoming more and more scarce soon enough.  And it would also have to have alot of energy over a small amount of space/weight, so that the size of the cars could be manageable.
Lift <----- something along the lines of VTOL (vertical take off and landing) seems feasible, except for the huge amount of energy that wastes, if there were any "lanes" then some sort of way to quickly switch between moving and stopping, while remaining airborn, would have to exist.
Control <----- it would have to be easy enough for the majority of the public to understand how to control the thing, and with precision so that crash's would be minimalized.
Dependability <----- engine dies out and your a few hundred feet in the air, you can kiss your life goodbye.  Just the insurance for owning one of these things would be outrageous.  Weekly check up or some sort quality standard would need to be high above todays standard.
Law <----- how to catch criminals when they can get in away in 3 directions, not just 2.
Roads <----- there would have to be some sort of monitered path that you would only be allowed to drive.  With boundaries that you would HAVE to adhere too, so that chaos and crashing wouldn't be a problem.  See how many planes you see in the skys? those are already carefully monitered so that they have enough area to not have any sort of collision, can you imagine how it would be if public transport would have full flying privilages?

hmm... good hypothesis on my part =)

[RickPowers]

No flying cars until they have "auto-pilot".  I don't trust people to drive on the GROUND safely, much less the air.

Sensors in the front and back bumpers tell the car in realtime how fast they are going, when they're braking, etc.  Each car communicates with the ones in front and in back of them, and it helps them all move along swiftly, but safely.

Until that's a reality, you'll never see one approved for commercial sale.

[aoi tsuki]

Before fliying cars, i'd like to see further advancements in current technology, mainly in automotive computers and AI. Cars that can drive themselves and predict possibly dangerous situations would lay some of the groundwork for cars that fly.

i'd expect these "flying cars" to be strictly government-controlled. Even if they become reality decades from now, in a post 9-11 US they'll still be seen as a threat (which they are) by many. And moving a vehicle like a car in three dimensions requires much more attention from the driver (pilot?) than a standard car -- the top and bottom of the car are huge blindspots. Backing up into a kid wouldn't be nearly as easy as landing on one.

[Ian Sane]

"the top and bottom of the car are huge blindspots"

Good point.  They would have to make the windshield like a jet cockpit with some sort of mirror or camera to see underneath.  Plus we would have to have up and down turn signals.

[mouse_clicker]

The Perm: I believe that was mentioned in the book Timeline. Obviously the book is a work of fiction, but Michael Crichton is known for doing heavy research and I don't doubt for a second that was actually true. It's one of the reasons I love Crichton's work so much.

Anyway, speaking of Flying Cars, has anyone seen Kevin Smith's short film "The Flying Car"? It debuted on the Tonight Show a while back and is hilarious. It basically consists of Randall and Dante of Clerks fame sitting in traffic discussing flying cars. It may sound boring, but Kevin Smith's superb writing keeps you laughing the whole way through.

[Hostile Creation]

Flying cars would be very cool, but only great people like me should be able to own them