Back to the Future Day Has Come & Gone—So Where Are the Flying Cars?

When Doc Brown took Marty McFly into the future in the Back to the Future film series, they arrived on Oct. 21, 2015. That day has long since come and gone on planet Earth. And while the movie did get some things right about its predictions about the future, e.g., 3D movies and video conferencing, it also got some things wrong.

For starters, the Cubs didn’t win the World Series this year, and the kids these days are still skateboarding and biking around town; there aren’t any hoverboards. But perhaps most unfortunately, the majority of us aren’t driving flying cars yet. Which is kind of a bummer.

Flying Cars in the Future?

Truth be told, there are few things finer than cruising down freshly paved interstate in your favorite car or taking your off-roading vehicle deep into the wilderness. But throw a flying car into the mix, and well, you know what they say — the sky really is the limit.

There’s some good news: Believe it or not, there’s no shortage of folks trying to solve the flying car conundrum. One of the more well-known flying car companies is called Terrafugia, which has been building flying cars and roadable aircraft since 2006. In 2010, the company got Federal Aviation Administration certification, meaning it could start taking its vehicles into the air.

While there haven’t been any flying cars put out on the market just yet, companies such as Terrafugia — and other entrepreneurs — give us gearheads hope maybe one day soon we’ll be able to drive in the air, so to speak.

But beyond simply being awesome, flying cars promise a wealth of benefits, including:

No More Traffic Jams

Traffic jams are absolutely horrible to endure, particularly when they become a routine part of your commute. The flying car promises to end traffic jams if for no other reason than simple gravity. One can imagine the technology built into flying cars will figure out how to make it so congestion is always kept to a minimum, e.g., cars communicating with one another to determine the safest altitudes.

You Can Live Very Far From Work

In today’s age of the automobile, many American workers live within 30 minutes of their office. In tomorrow’s age of the flying car, chances are folks would be able to live a lot further away simply because they’d be able to get from Point A to Point B much faster.

Increased Fuel Efficiency

Engineered by cutting-edge technology, flying cars will undoubtedly be fuel-efficient and better on the environment than the gas guzzlers of yore. Who knows? Maybe manufacturers can build solar panels into the vehicle’s design that could at least serve as a backup power source, if not provide the main juice.

Flying Cars Will Be Safer

Though it’s not uncommon to be afraid of flying, believe it or not, traveling via plane is 19 times safer than driving a car. The flying cars of tomorrow will be outfitted with the latest sonar, radar, video imaging, GPS and geolocation technologies, ensuring that flights (or drives?) are safe.

Fingers crossed we’ll see functional, safe flying cars available at reasonable prices in our lifetime. Assuming that’s the case, would you buy one?

See you in the air!

Featured image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons