Ridin' "Jetsons" style soon a reality?

[stevewfl]

A surprising number of small companies around the world are vying to be the first to bring flying cars to customers, and many are predicting that 2017 will be a turning point for the industry.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/18/luxury/flying-cars-aeromobil/index.html?iid=ob_homepage_tech_pool&iid=obnetwork

[Rhino]

A bigger fan you could not find than me. Every time I find myself in traffic I fantasize about pulling back on the wheel and leaving it behind. But I don't believe this will EVER even come close to main stream. Perhaps a Saudi prince or 2 with disposable billions and more importantly the power to change his country's regulations just for him could be a buyer. But for the rest of us, never mind the buy in cost, government is NEVER going to let this happen. The regulations and approvals required will never converge. And cities will never allow the risk of people flying into and landing in a congested area.

[sherob]

I can see the first one every used... taking off... turbo prop spinning away... and a birds, gets smacked up in it... bird nuggets sprayed all over the road on to windsheilds... 

[Deziner]

For $340K, I could have a pretty nice car and a pretty nice airplane. Or a POS car and a NICE airplane.

[Nosmo]

And, it's recently been crash tested:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/aeromobil-flying-car-prototype-crash-lands-during-test-flight/

[stevewfl]

The wright brothers crashed very early on too, and look where we are today

edit:  not to mention the trillions of daily ground crashes of regular cars (which will continue until the hardware and software is perfected they drive themselves)

and there were closeminded folks that SWORE man would never go into space or land on the moon.  I'm surprised Tesla hasn't jumped on this bandwagon yet, but I learned in the business news today they've been throwing resources at battery powered train technology  for the green crowd in California 

[Conrad]

This will bring texting and driving/flying to a new level.   

[gPink]

No worries...Google has you covered. 

[VirginiaJim]

That's what I'm afraid of..  And of course their car will tattle on you as well if you treat it mean or exceed any speed limits.

[Cholla]

Flying cars are nothing new. There have been successful models in the past.

[stevewfl]

Flying cars are nothing new. There have been successful models in the past.

whats new is these guys are putting them into production.  Can't have our politicians and CEO's going all the way to the airport to board a private 5-star corporate jet