[yason]

If people had these, it wouldn't of course solve any of the classical 50's flying-car-in-a-traffic-jam problems. Instead, the jam would materialize mid-air with hundreds of these little flying cars looking for a strip of highway to land nearby a supermarket before they all run out of gas and start dropping like flies, unless they've already crashed into each other in the uncontrolled airspace in a very uncontrolled manner.

Luckily the guy was apparently envisioning usecases for medical and rescue team, mostly.

[danparsonson]

And then there's the unshielded people-blender mounted on the back....

Looks great for the emergency services market he's aiming at, but for the consumer market he wants to target to help get things moving - scary stuff.

[chrislomax]

I thought exactly these two points when he said it's great for when you are stuck in a traffic jam and you can fly over everyone at 40mph. Well, not if everyone is already in there air! It would be funny in a weird twist of fate that if this was adopted an in 1000 years everyone started buying road cars again to avoid the airways congestion...

I also thought about the props when he was just driving round, I don't know what laws are like in the USA but if you are caught with a lump of wood sticking out the back of the car in the UK then you get pulled over, never mind 6 x 3 foot knives!

[JoeAltmaier]

The air is a whole lot bigger than the ground. Roads are 33 ft wide. The air is - the air! Its miles wide and 3D. It would conceivably be had to collide with another air car if you tried.

Takeoff and landing is the risky time, and that is mitigated by the timing - it takes seconds to land this thing (100 yd airstrip) so you'd have to attempt to land at the same moment as someone else which is in your favor.

[chrislomax]

I agree but at the same time you would have hot spots. Shopping centres etc etc. This car is also not automated so how would you avoid mid air collisions? You would obviously need to land near your street, so there would need to be designated landing strips, you couldn't just plonk down in a field somewhere.

It would be like frequencies too, you would only be able to fly in a limited amount of "space". The rest would be reserved for airplanes and helicopters.

It's only the same as airplanes having to follow flight paths, there would be directions that car-o-planes could go in.

I know what you are saying but imagine London or New York with flying cars everywhere. The end result would really be no different. Concentrated areas with millions of cars flying in it.

Although... http://www.firebox.com/product/415/Moller-Skycar-M400