If you get to own a flying car in your lifetime there is a chance it may be a M-400 Skycar being developed by Paul Moller. ABC News reports that the flying car Moller is building can do the following: "take off and land vertically, hover, and fly at up to 300 mph." The car won't be cheap at first -- ABC News says the intial price will be $500,000. The article also saying flying cars could be a reality within 25 years.
Moller foresees a future where skycars routinely zip around taxis or personal vehicles.
"You will be able to get in your skycar, drive it electrically to a vertiport, two or three blocks from your home, program in your destination, and go directly to that destination with being involved in the process," Moller said.
The M-400 and several earlier prototypes have already flown, but only on a limited basis and not very high or very far.
But no one doubts the technology exists to produce a flying car. The challenge is to make it safe to operate, and that means turning the driver into a passenger.
"As you know on the ground most of the accidents are due to operator error so you have to pull that out of the equation in the air," he said. "You just have to computerize it."
Who wouldn't want to fly to work or to a travel destination in their own car? The obvious problem is how can we create a computerized air traffic grid that is nearly accident free when we can't even achieve adequate car safety on the ground.
