Everyone is always so excited about the idea of personal aircraft ... am I the only one worried about what will happen when drunks and idiots with cell phones suddenly have to be aware of traffic coming from 6 directions instead of only 4?

Flying cars coming to the market? Is it 1955 already?

I can just see us all walking around under reinforced concrete shells and fitting our houses with steel steeples.

I have to agree with the added dangers of irresponsible drivers, imagine how catastrophic running out of gas while passing over other cars could be, or even attempts to pass over cars without lifting more than 10 feet off the ground. These cars should require a separate, and much more demanding training course and test to license.

I'm with mt on this one. If you get in an accident in one of these flying cars, you're probably not going to be walking away. Anyways, think about it. Are flying cars really necessary? Why not just improve the transit system?

Unless a new traffic system is devised for these flying cars, where the whole thing is completely automated (kind of like the one in the movie "Minority Report") then maybe. Until then, it's good ol' terra firma for me ^^

Looks like Moller is looking for investors/suckers once again. Either that or a reporter saw something, thought it was neat, and forgot to do any investigating. This snake oil salesman has been in business for over 20 years and has yet to produce a flying machine.

At a million a pop it better be good and not a piece of junk,And I agree withmt from ottawa says about the cell phones and drunks.

Commercial pilot friends of mine tell me how overloaded the Air Traffic system is now with just regular aircraft (as if the informed flying public doesn't know). Newer network control technologies allowing pilots to route themselves more directly than today's necessarily restrictive "air corridors" are *just* being trialed in Alaska, but they are far, far, from the automated control networks Dr. Moller's postulates will arrive to permit his aircars to fly safely in the quantities he's envisioned. He's been promising his flying car revolution for decades, and has had many prototypes. He's railed against the aerospace industry, the FAA, and pilots in for about as long for what he says is a cabal against allowing the average person operate (through extensive computer automation) his vehicle without a pilot's license, which despite being called a "aircar", is nothing more than a VSTOL aircraft.

The reality of the situation is that there's no way to control all these "aircars" with a reasonable element of safety, but Dr. Moller just wants to be able to sell them and not have his buyers require a pilot's license.

We can't even get the commercial momentum to automate ground cars, beyond the tenuous beginnings of emergency braking and self-parking. Just as drive-by-network on a highway would still require a car operator to known how to drive the car when the network disconnects, or for local trips, so would an "aircar" operator need to know how to fly it when the network goes down.

Like many inventors, Dr.Moller's technology isn't revolutionary, but evolutionary, and is simply a long way ahead of its time, waiting for the most difficult technical part to be solved.

When they have a model that won't ruin the environment, let me know. Besides, we know the Feds will never license this for landing or driving on the road. It isn't legal to go near public buildings, or across private property. Where exactly are people going to us this.

Great. I can hardly wait to experience the effects of a vehicle that makes more noise than a leaf-blowers and is unconstrained by roads, fences, or sanity. What a boon to human life.

Oh yeah, that won't be incredibly energy intensive or cause an increase of green house gasses.

This is in reply to mt in Ottawa. I agree whole heartedly with your concerns about the dangerous drivers on the road eventually taking to the sky. However I have personally been following Mollar's work since the 70's and can put your mind at ease when it comes to your concerns. The beautiful thing about the Skycar is that it will not be a system where we as owners would have total control over the operation of the craft.
The way it is designed is for the passengers to get in the cabin, start the machine, and get into the air. After that the computer acts off the GPS system, goes into automatic, and the pilot takes his/her hands off the contols. The skyways will be virtual. Mollar stated in earlier years that a heads-up display would probably be incorporated so us humans can see the 'skyways' for ourselves. Now I'm still not so sure how comfortable I would be letting a computer do all the work, but apparently pilots in todays commercial aircraft do pretty much the same thing now with the occasional need for minor course corrections. So I guess if it works now on a bigger craft, why not a car sized one? As for independent control... this would only occur in regions that are so remote that no virtual skyway would be needed.

So the airspace over my house - is it sovereign?

Legally no but when aircraft currently fly over it is at a altitude where only the noise bothers us on the ground - but these hover cars won't be flying at 30 000 feet - how many hover cars will be flying over my backyard at an altitude of 500 - 1000 feet ?

Sure it only emits a noise level of 85 decibels at 50 feet, but what about my privacy?

And when I do get to work, how do I come in for a landing? Just sneak in between the H2 and the Bettle ?

ATC currently monitors the air traffic with a ceiling of 15, 000 ft these will need to be monitored as well.

I am not against the idea at all I love it - but it needs more thought an infrastructure in place before we take off with it.

According to the Moller International website they seem to agree.

Wow Back to the Future came true... Ahhh, just imagine if it broke down spontaniously.

So much for cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions.

Not a bad idea since it could save the government billions of dollars on maintance on our nations bridges and roadways. The money could be used to bury all those transmission lines the cars could get collide and tangled on. Seriously it's only a good idea if the whole system is automated.

hahaha is it 1955 already :P lol ... but i do agree if ppl get in these things drunk i would not be pretty ... they should put the breathaliser thing in them ... totally safe after that :P

I as much as the next person, have to agree that flying cars would be a pretty cool thing to have. Traffic accidents and jams COULD be a thing of the past if the whole system is automated I guess. But having some experience with computers, I know that they are only as good as the user. So if John Q Public forgot a couple lines of code, then imagine what the results could be.

I think one day we'll have flying cars and virtual roadways, I just don't think it's coming this year.

Besides, scraping dead bugs off a car is hard enough. Imagine the mess a seagull or pidgeon would make? Not pretty...

It is refreshing to read so many comments that are demonstratively and intelligently well thought out. Kudos to all!

As a 1200+ hour 22 year ultralight pilot, instructor, and former hang glider tow pilot, I have tracked thousands of accidents over the years and nearly every one was due to human error ranging from negligent preflights to outright stupidity, therefore being preventable.

The powers that be would have to have a bulletproof system in place to screen out the yahoos, 'cowboys', addicted, unfit, etc. from ever having control of these vehicles and that's not likely to happen anytime soon.

It takes an extremely high degree of learning, responsibility and judgement to operate any aircraft safely as the air, even more so than the sea, is extremely unforgiving of any form of carelessness in operation of any aircraft. Even the outrageously high prices of the aircraft themselves aren't that great a deterrent, as John Denver's fatal incident proves. That was a classic case of lack of due diligence in multiple areas.

This factor of the demands on a pilot alone will rule out the concept of a flying car in everyone's driveway, not to mention the unwanted destruction caused by anything unanchored nearby transforming into an instant missile when said aircraft departs or approaches the ground as the result of the downward air blast from the fans.

It's a great example of a vision that has lost touch with reality. There is no personal air transport in our future. It is a hallucination induced by exposure to episodes of The Jetsons. The real future has turned out to have a different interpretation of 'access' - it's not about conquering nature and getting anywhere, it's about being anywhere and bringing the world to us, and us together.

Single-person-moving is ultimately a self-limiting dead end. It is a concept that is inescapably wasteful because it incurs the maximum per-person cost, no matter what mode of transport is used. But there is potential for this kind of technology in moving goods. Imagine an automated network of manufacturing inputs and outputs free of the constraints of competing traffic and expensive handling, assuming the ridiculous fuel waste of his current concept can be corrected.

Cool idea, wrong dream.

No arguments with the critics of this. I can see paramedics, ambulances, police and firefighters having a legit need for this kind of tech. But that's about the extent of it.

As for the rest of us? We should stick to reading the adventures of Marvel Comics' Agents of SHIELD, if we want flying cars in our lives.

I think we need to learn how to drive before we can fly. we already have a huge problem with street racing, fast cars ect... people in this world can barely make a simple two car pass on the 401 with hitting someone else. that last thing we need is someone getting passed from someone 10 feet above them. I think we all need to slow down and relax. I wish I was born in horse and wagon era, no one seemed to be in a hurry back then. that's the place for me.

I really don't think a flying car is a great idea right now because it's really unnecessary for people the fly a car. plus, it doesn't look like a car, it looks like a personal aircraft.
plus drunk drivers. what are you going to do if you crash, you would basically have a low chance of getting out with minor injuries.
And what kind of rules would there be? you'd have to reconstruct practically everything!
And why would we want to get a pilots license to drive a car?
It isn't a good idea right now, maybe in the future it would be a more innovative way to get around, but not now.

10 feet? are they serious. did those guys ever think about the jet/rotor wash some thing like this would make?