Why don't we have flying cars yet?

People can barely gas up their SUVs these days. Flying cars will make SUVs look economic by comparison.
Seriously, flying cars would have many hurdles to cross to become mainstream: cost, safety, regulation (DMV? NTSB? FAA? All? Good luck with that last one).
Most importantly, I don’t think people want flying cars enough to shell out probably 10x the amount they would for a regular car, when you include fuel, insurance, and cost of vehicle.

Flawed concept.

Hey, we could have wrecks in 3-D. I can just imagine the commute to work like that.

Rubber vehicles, that’s the way to go. Never mind the safety aspect, imagine the fun!

Not enough STEM majors.~

Two answers:

1) cost of operation: the fuel to weight ratio is poor. They could make them, but the MPG would SUCK and no one would want to pay for the privilege.

2) traffic control. If you think people drive like idiots on the ground, they would be deadly in the air. Some sort of equivalent to stop signs and traffic lights would be necessary.

If we could shrink a nuclear reactor we have enough power, the problem is safety. Plus, the hand-eye coordination needed would be ridiculous. Then again, I’m pretty sure the gaming generation can handle it.

We do have them, unfortunately. They’re piloted by drunk drivers.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Oh Lord. Can you imagine??

@Mr_Paradox if we could shrink a nuclear reactor we could all have radiation disease AND terrorists would have a much easier time skirting weapons inspectors. And that’s only IF we could do it.

@drhat77 It does seem to be the only plausible way to get the necessary power though. I doubt the flying car will come to fruition for the exact reasons you pointed out though.

I vote no until our Earth-bound drivers are skillful enough to pilot an automobile in a narrowly defined lane on a single planar surface with no more accidental collisions than commercial airline pilots experience. Yesterday, in a suburb of Boston, a man drove straight through a Tedeschi Market and kept right on going. CLearly this is not someone we want driving around over our heads.

~We have flying cars… We call them airplanes… Sorry I had to say that. Right know the R&D is getting to fuel efficiency, looks, and putting electronics inside the car. Eventually they will get to the point where we will have cars similar to the Star Trek Shuttle craft… It might take 50 years maybe more maybe less.

@talljasperman – uh, no. Those are buses. A flying CAR would let me do a bunch of errands like going to the bank, grocery, and then dry cleaners with 120 people sitting next to me.

@elbanditoroso How about a flying motorcycle…. ? Drunk bikers idling over your house peeing on your roof, and throwing glass bottles on your lawn.

The requirements for traveling on land are completely different from those necessary for traveling in air.
An airplane makes a poor car. A car makes a poor airplane. Putting the two together makes something that is a poor compromise at best.
Sure, it can be done. Engineers can do anything. But are consumers willing to pay the price for something with such diminished performance?

This is also true for the boat cars of the 50’s and 60’s. Check out “Amphicar”. They made poor boats and poor cars. They were neat though.

@LuckyGuy – don’t forget James Bond’s white ferrari (?) that drove and swam in the classic Bond film For Your Eyes Only.

It is a terrifying idea, especially because of the ‘pilots’ and manufacturers.
Do you really want to risk your life sharing your airspace with millions of americans or italians, that either only learned to fly in their backyards or have no respect for other pilots and are both fueled by alcohol and rage?
Do you really want a flying car made by Ssangyong or GM? Do you want either the pilots or the shoddy machines flying over your heads and houses?

@raging – for get the Italians. Drivers in Boston are bad enough.

We do have flying cars… they just aren’t quite to the point we’d all like them to be for our Jetson-like imaginations. Check out Terrafugia

a plane that you can drive down a regular road in your neighborhood and that you can fill up at your regular local filling station.

@Jenniehowell
The problem with that is, it is not a flying car.
It is a foldable aeroplane.

@Jenniehowell – Terrafugia is cute, but I go back to my first objection above. Will this be economical in the sense that a person can use it every day?

@ragingloli & @elbanditoroso You’re right but I suppose it all has to start somewhere. If they keep at it, perhaps it will slowly become more and more sensible and affordable. In the mean time – I’ll be sticking to my Jetson-like imagination where a robot picks out my clothes, cooks my breakfast & hands me the keys to my flying saucer car.

If we ever have flying cars, just from a safety perspective, these 3 things are a MUST
1. Completely automated with fully functional Artificial Intelligence driven autopilot.
2. Their production has to be as tightly regulated as commercial aeroplanes.
3. Owners must prove regular maintainance at certified workshops, best done with an automated central registry. Miss one scheduled mainainance, the car goes out of comission until it is.

Why don’t we have flying cars? Answer: No Flubber

@ragingloli- no smarminess? Who are you, and what have you done with the real ragingloli!