Flying cars? Wuppertal in Germany already has flying trains!
Heh. Well said MarcRider. But lets set aside atmospheric turbulence for the moment. I see something quite different happening; or really things just continuing as it they are now, only in the air.
Obviously, this guy never actually flew any helicopters. I read on the web how they're harder to fly than fixed wing airplanes and overall are more dangerous. Maybe less so than driving, but that might be because at the current time training and licensing of helicopter pilots is more rigorous than training and licensing automobile drivers.
They are more difficult to fly and require much more training. And helicopters have a higher accident rate than fixed wing airplanes. And they are a lot more expensive to operate. Insurance alone could be a killer.
One difference between fixed wing aircraft and helicopters is that when a fixed wing aircraft has engine failure it turns into a glider and you have an opportunity to find a place to land as generally they will glide a fair distance if handled correctly. Helicopters on the other hand essentially turn into a rock once the engine fails and fall out of the sky. There might be a little autorotational descent if the rotors can be kept turning that might slow the crash a bit.
Why should we clutter up our valuable airspace to cater to the whims of rich guys? They can sit in traffic like the rest of us!
On the other hand we have got pretty used to drones, both of the remote controlled kind and of the autonomous kind. Would it not be possible to scale up that technology and make it big enough to carry a human. You just program the destination, take your hands off the controls, and let the drone take you there. The programming could then ensure you only followed pre-approved trajectories to pre-approve destinations and don't use the drone to crash into stuff or enter delicate areas.
