Flying cars in the Future?

One grounded vision of the future

Often while driving along familiar routes our minds go blank, or we turn to fantasy. I had such an episode recently when I turned to the future of driving. We have seen those fabulous movie scenes where travel by car is off the ground. The Sound and Light studios have developed some incredible visions for us, but will they ever become reality, and if so, why?

I principally drive around Valencia, Spain, a very modern city, but I was trying to visualize cars and trucks moving at streetlight heights off the ground, and how would that work? Firstly, there is the problem of not having mastered safely driving on the ground. For instance, when traffic comes to a roundabout all drivers wear an expression that says, "Now what do I do?"

Travel off the ground by car cannot envision simply going in any direction that comes to mind. We have that now, which is why we also have so many pile ups. For instance, where we have six or eight lanes of traffic, what could the driver be thinking when he is on the far left and cuts across all lanes to get to the far right? (I'm not making this up. It actually does happen.)

• So, if not free choice there will have to be ground control electronic guide rails and stop/go controls. The operative word is control, and that is what is missing from present day motoring. By giving the motorist the freedom to choose these are some of the things he chooses to do:
• He will not signal his intentions. You have to read his mind because he believes its against the law to signal. Students of the "Big Ideas" program are looking into something they call Search/Alert Communicative Turn Signal system that would help the driver with signalling. It would also help in merging.
• Merging is important because at the moment, should I be in the middle lane I can expect cars to overtake me in the right hand lane. Yes, that's illegal in the country, and its also deadly.
• Drivers who are at stop lights often move off while the light is on red. The light is about to turn to green, however, due to a lack of patience our man prematurely makes his move. On the other side the other man really doesn't want to stop and wait until he gets the green, so more often than not these two geniuses meet by accident. They have to be saved from themselves.

I could go on at length, but if we are going to have to build all these controls on the ground so as to allow air travel, why bother? I think we will see ever more sophisticated types of vehicles for ground travel. Small cars for city travel will get even smaller and lighter, and run by battery. Technology will advance to have cars drive themselves on implanted grids, but the idea of cars floating around in mid-air is not likely in anybody's lifetime, and that includes those still in the womb.

Stay tuned!

 

Copyright (c) 2013   Eugene Carmichael