[gakada]

Flying cars are really about having a personal aircraft that can be operated by non-pilots -- like a car can be. i.e. it has to be fully autonomous, because the average person can't be trusted to perform the usual functions of a pilot.

It has to get itself from A to B, communicate with ATC, land itself in an emergency, and avoid intersecting the ground or other aircraft.

What it doesn't have to be, is car-shaped, or roadworthy. If I were designing a "flying car" it would look more like a powered glider.

None of this is particularly beyond the reach of today's technology, and if the vehicle isn't shaped like a brick, it's not beyond the laws of physics either. We just need to figure out how to make reliable software...