There have been a number of flying cars over the years, such as the Model 59H AirGeep II. They're just expensive and impractical, so nobody ever builds more than a handful of them.
I never thought the "flying" part was the core technology... it seemed to be the invention some non-traditional, low-noise, propulsion & power source that could levitate heavy objects. I don't think we have that ... if we did, the expensive and practical part might be solved and we'd have them everywhere :)
To be fair... consumer-grade lightfield displays (or whatever you want to call the MagicLeap display) don't exist yet either -- so it's a technology problem too.
Except that Magic Leap's technology problem has had $1B in investment capital thrown at it -- much more than flying cars, no?
Yeah, that's pretty much my point. $1B might solve the technology problem, but no amount of money will solve the market problem (which I suggest Magic Leap, and hypothetical flying cars, don't have)
I agree and interestingly I think the first technology problem that needed to be solved was not the flying element, but instead with autonomy self driving capabilities, which we will soon see within the next 3-5 years.
Looking cool on TV doesn't mean it'll sell. Movie OSes have every keystroke and action make a sound and use 48pt font for everything. I wouldn't bet much on such an OS selling in the market.
That's not a very convincing argument and doesn't answer the question at all. I already can't think of a reason I'd buy one, and telling me it'll be full of spam isn't helping.
I'm also a little disappointed they've raised so much money if their long term goal is just spamming people in "augmented reality".