Some Quick Tastes

Each week I have a couple the articles from my semi-weekly newsletter found at techtonic. Subscribe there for more or here for a weekly look. Sorry for the delay this week as I was sick yesterday

QUICKBYTE: Will my son get to live the Jetson dream of a flying car

Bottomline: Likely yes though he will need to clear some of his lawn to create a take off and landing area, and expand his current garage.

Thinking about Rosie the Robot got me thinking about the flying cars that the Jetson family had. Our current naming convention lacks the pizazz of flying car being called eVTOLs (electric vehicle take-off and landing), but this century is obsessed with acronyms so that is probably the best we are going to get. Turns out there has been a lot going on so that eVTOLs are really close to being in flight near you, with some versions actually already approved for the market in the US.

As you can see from the photo below of a licensed to fly model, it doesn’t have the same family roominess of the Jetsons. It’s harsh angles remind me of the fierce looking Tesla trucks. Here’s why: the manufacturer is a company called Alef Aeronautics, who have received an investment from Elon Musk. This was before his shift to re-engineering government and being interested in things political regardless of country.

The marketing geniuses who named this model, The BlackFly, obviously haven’t spent any time at a remote lake or wilderness hiking where they are some of the most annoying insects on the planet. It currently has 5 private owners in addition to 8 sold to the military (naturally purchased to chase down the formation flying drones on the east coast). The replacement to it has already being rolled out (called the Helix so they obviously fired the original marketing agency) and will cost around $190,000, similar to the cost of the Tesla Cyberbeast.

This is a busy fledgling industry with many other offerings being brought to the market. As you might expect they are all over the place in terms of look and feel, purpose and technology. Some are being rolled out as build it yourself kits (never flying in one of these), a couple are hybrids (road and air, not engine and motor), and one is billed as easy to fly electric aircraft where you only need your car driver’s license and a little training (another hard pass). Right now air speeds are between 100 and 200 mph while distances flown average 200 to 300 miles.

Like autonomous vehicles there are lots of hurdles to jump to get to mass acceptance, including safety, regulation, insurance and infrastructure (start watching for vertiports to be built near you). They are likely 10 years away from widespread commercial availability but you could see the odd one flying about soon. For LOTS more information if you are interested here is a flyboy Youtube of the World's Most Advanced Flying Cars.

ENCORE: Checking one of my 2025 Predictions

I am taking my 10 predictions for 2025 somewhat seriously and am tracking them closely. The latest court case from Friday suggests that TikTok is in poor legal shape at the Supreme Court to try to escape the legal order for their parent company to divest them. But the Whack-a-do soon to be in the large white house has yet to be heard from. He seems somehow to be able to slither around the law.

Thanks for reading. Get it at at techtonic