Both the New York Times and the BBC have recent articles claiming that flying cars, in the form of flying taxis, will soon be common. And it could be true this time.
The reason we say "this time" is people have been predicting flying cars will soon be in the air for over a century. So far, they've been wrong.
Both Ford Motor Company and the Curtis Aircraft Company built flying car prototypes as early as 1915.
The picture below is from a 1917 newspaper article and shows the Curtis prototype, which, of course, never went into production. It's also unclear whether or not it ever got off the ground.
And in 1955 the Smithsonian Magazine predicted that by 2000 atomic powered flying cars would be common. Their flying car picture, which doesn't looks very aerodynamic, is below.
More recently, the concept of the flying car has gained traction with many predictions they would soon be ferrying passengers around and avoiding crowded city streets.
The picture below is from Uber's Elevate air taxi effort and according to Uber in 2018, their air taxi services would be in trials in multiple cities by 2020.
In case you wondering, there are no trials underway and Uber sold its air taxi group last year.
But despite 100 or so years of the flying car predictions not coming true, they likely will over the next decade. And as Uber and others have predicted, they will likely come in the form of flying taxis.
BBC's The flying car is here - and it could change the world claims, well, that flying cars already exist. Key quote from the BBC article:
In fact, flying cars are real – and they could shape how we commute, work and live in the coming decades. Advances in battery energy density, materials science and computer simulation have spurred the development of a range of personal flying vehicles (and the navigation systems that will allow them to run), from electric gliders to fixed-wing craft and quadcopter drones.
They are correct, flying cars are real - if prototypes and very limited production models count.
But we still have a ways to go before we get to flying taxis being common.
Air taxi demand and economics are yet to be proven, air traffic control is still an issue and so are a large number of safety issues. It's also not clear when regulators will allow a bunch of air taxies overhead in highly populated areas.
However the technology has reached the point where flying taxis are likely going to happen over the next decade, and maybe even in the next 3-5 years.
And since we've been waiting over 100 years, that's pretty soon.
