What prevents autonomous flying cars from the market?

A major part of government regulations related to transportation are meant to keep us safe, and the need for regulation will certainly be amplified when our cars leave the ground. The consequences of an accident in the sky and the ability to recover from one will provide challenges much greater than those posed for land-based vehicles.

We’ve long seen in Star Wars and elsewhere in sci-fi orderly rows of autonomous flying vehicles moving through the skies of the future. For that to happen, we’ll not only need advanced technology, but also a rethinking of rules that govern the friendly skies. These challenges may just make the step from land-based to flying autonomous cars a much bigger leap than moving from current land-based, human-driven cars to autonomous cars.

In this article, John and I discuss the obstacles keeping flying car technology from hitting the market and anticipate how they might become a reality.