Elaine Ou, Columnist

Where Flying Cars Might Take Us

They're problematic in cities, but they could make other places livable.

February 17, 2017 at 7:00 AM UTC

Elaine Ou is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a blockchain engineer at Global Financial Access in San Francisco. Previously she was a lecturer in the electrical and information engineering department at the University of Sydney.

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I’ve always thought that the fastest way to get flying cars would be to spread rumors that China built one first. Well, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority just announced that they have a Chinese-made flying car, and intend to put flying taxis in service this summer. Meanwhile, we’re still anticipating the flying cars promised by Uber Inc., Airbus Group SE, Larry Page’s companies, and nearly a century’s worth of aviation pioneers.

Why wait? Airborne urban transport has long existed in the form of helicopters.1487275665617 There's no legal prohibition against parking one in your backyard and buzzing to work every day. Trade-a-Plane has lots of listings ready to fly for less than the cost of a Tesla Model S. If flying cars can solve our transportation problems, why don’t we have more heli-commuters?