Flying Cars: The Ultimate Solution To Traffic Congestions

 

   You wake up on a beautiful Monday morning only to realise that you are 30 minutes away from resumption time at work. You hurriedly prepare and somehow manage to leave the house in just 15 minutes. You jump right into the car and hit the road. You are then greeted by a long queue of cars all in the same situation as yourself. It's clear, you're gonna be late for work - ''again''.

   Flying cars date back to as early as 1917 when Glen Curtis built a vehicle called an autoplane. As time went by, other inventors like Constantinos Vlachos, Waldo Waterman amidst a couple of others made improvements on this already existing form of transportation. Of recent though, the possibility of completely eliminating traffic congestions is embracing reality. In fact, earlier this year on April 15, the world's first consumer flying car showroom was established in California. Flying cars can help to control the rate of traffic jams across the globe. But they will have to be largely autonomous and highly reliable. There will also need to be designated sites for emergency landing in case of inevitable periodic failure. A typical flying car requires the personnel in control to be both a qualified road driver and an aircraft pilot. Artificial intelligence can be implemented in the control systems in order to interact with other  systems to control air traffic and prevent the risk of collisions.  

    But there is a catch - they can only travel at low altitudes and pressure. Thus, they are used for relatively short distances at high frequency and are also less economical. The conventional passenger aircraft can travel at higher speeds and altitudes enabling it to maximize energy efficiency. To solve the problem of low energy efficiency and budget, flying cars need to operate on electricity. The clear environmental benefits of electrical power are a strong incentive for its integration in flying cars. It meets the standards for pollution emissions and thus this makes it a cleaner source of energy.

      But there are high expectations for the emerging market in flying cars. The concept of flying cars has long been publicized as a visionary milestone in transportation in the nearest future. At one industry event, Hyundai Motors Europe Chief Executive Micheal Cole called the concept ''part of our future''. Flying cars might just be the ultimate solution after all.  Who knows?