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When Will We Get Flying Cars? | Curious Questions from Curious Kids! · The Curious Kidcast | Fun Facts and Curious Questions

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  What if I told you that your morning school run could one day
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  look like this? You walk outside, press a
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  button, your car sprouts wings, and you just float away.
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  No traffic, no getting stuck behind a tractor.
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  Just you, the clouds and probably a very confused pigeon.
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  Every futuristic film you've ever watched has cars zipping
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  around the sky. Is this the world we might be
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  heading towards on the Curious Kid cast?
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  We are going to find out exactly how close we are to living in
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  it. Curious kid cast?
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  Here we go. Questions popping minds will
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  blow. Big ideas.
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  They're taking flight. Let's explore.
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  Feel the light. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome
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  to the Curious Kid cast. I'm your host, Charlie, and this
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  is the show where we take the biggest, brainiest, most bonkers
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  questions that kids have and we answer them properly.
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  No boring stuff, no falling asleep, just pure brilliant
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  curiosity. Now today's question comes from
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  a kid called Henry who is 9 years old and lives in
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  Birmingham. Henry says he came up with this
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  question because, and I'm quoting here, my mum spends 45
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  minutes every morning stuck in traffic muttering to herself and
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  I thought there must be a better way.
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  Henry, mate, first of all, brilliant observation.
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  Second of all, your mum sounds like every mum ever.
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  And 3rd, you have just inspired an entire episode of this
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  podcast, so well done. You are officially a curious
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  kid. Today's question is when will we
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  get flying cars? Let us get into it.
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  OK, so here is something that might blow your brain a little
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  bit. People have been dreaming about
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  flying cars for over 100 years. That is, right before
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  smartphones, before the Internet, before your parents
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  were even born, humans were already sitting around thinking
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  driving is fine, but what if we just went up?
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  Back in 1917, an inventor built something called the Curtis
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  Autoplane. It had wings, it had a
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  propeller, and it had absolutely no idea what it was doing.
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  It kind of hopped along the ground a bit, and that was
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  mostly it. Not exactly The Jetsons, is it?
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  Now Speaking of The Jetsons, if you have never seen it, it is an
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  old cartoon from the 1960s where an entire family zooms around a
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  futuristic city in flying cars. There are robots, there are jet
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  packs, and everyone lives above the clouds.
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  It was basically a cartoon version of what adults in the
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  1960s thought the year 2000 would look like.
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  Spoiler alert, the year 2000 came and went and we were still
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  very much on the ground stuck in traffic, probably listening to
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  ACD. But the dream never went away.
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  And that is actually quite important because dreams have a
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  funny habit of eventually becoming real, right?
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  So if people have been trying for over 100 years, why do we
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  not have flying cars already? Great question and I am going to
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  explain it in a way that makes total sense.
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  I promise. Problem number one.
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  Wait. Cars are really, really heavy.
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  We are talking hundreds and thousands of kilograms.
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  Lifting something that heavy off the ground needs a lot of power.
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  Aeroplanes manage it, but they have massive wings and massive
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  engines. Squashing all of that into
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  something that also needs to fit in your driveway and go around a
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  roundabout is extremely tricky. It is basically like trying to
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  build something that is both a sofa and a submarine.
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  Both are great. Together, they are a disaster.
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  Problem #2 Power. Flying uses a huge amount of
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  energy, way more than just driving along a road.
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  And if you run out of fuel in a car, you pull over.
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  If you run out of fuel in a flying car, well, that is a very
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  different kind of problem. Engineers are testing batteries
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  and electric engines, but they need to be much, much better
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  before anyone feels safe going several 100 meters up in the
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  air. Problem #3 Safety, and this is
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  the big one. Driving a car is already
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  something people find quite hard.
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  I mean, have you ever sat in the back seat while someone tried to
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  parallel park? Pure chaos.
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  Now imagine doing that but in the sky, surrounded by other
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  flying cars. The computers and sensors needed
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  to keep everyone safe are incredibly complex and they have
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  to work perfectly every single time because in the sky there is
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  no pulling over onto a pavement. Problem #4 air traffic.
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  Imagine if everyone in your city had a flying car.
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  Thousands of cars in the sky at once.
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  Who goes first? Who gives way?
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  Who keeps flying too slowly in the fast lane?
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  Actually, this sounds exactly like a motorway, but with more
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  falling. Experts are working on air
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  traffic systems for flying cars, but it is a very big puzzle to
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  solve. Be fun because flying cars are
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  not all the same. There are actually a few
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  different types and some of them are closer to real life than
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  others. First you have got the car plane
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  hybrid. This looks like a small
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  aeroplane with wheels. You drive it on the road like a
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  normal car. Then when you get to a runway,
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  the wings unfold and off you go. These actually already exist as
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  working prototypes. The downside is you still need a
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  proper runway to take off and land, so it is not quite the
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  lift off from your driveway dream just yet.
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  Second, there is the Vt old car which stands for vertical take
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  off and landing. These are the exciting ones.
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  They go straight up like a helicopter using multiple
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  propellers, a bit like a massive drone, no runway needed.
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  You could in theory take off from a car park, a field or your
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  back garden which would absolutely terrify your
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  neighbors and honestly that is part of the appeal. 3rd we have
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  hover cars. These are the full on science
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  fiction ones that float above the ground like magic.
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  Scientists are experimenting with magnetic levitation, which
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  is where powerful magnets push against each other to lift
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  things up. It is very cool but true.
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  Hover cars that work on normal roads are still very much in the
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  future Future category. And 4th, there are flying taxis
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  now. These are the ones that might
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  actually appear first. Companies are building small
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  electric flying vehicles that work like an air taxi.
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  You book 1 on your phone, it picks you up, flies you over the
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  city, and drops you off like Uber.
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  But instead of a slightly wiffy Toyota, it's a flying pod.
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  So who's actually building these things?
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  Loads of people actually, and the competition is fierce.
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  There is a company called Terrafugia, based in the United
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  States, who built flying cars that are nearly ready for
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  private owners to buy. You could drive one on a road
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  and fly it at an airport. That is pretty incredible when
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  you think about it. There is Aeromobile from
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  Slovakia, which is a country in Europe who have built a car that
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  folds its wings away neatly and can fly hundreds of kilometres.
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  It looks properly futuristic and a little bit like something a
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  super villain would own in a cool way.
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  Then there is Joby Aviation, who are building electric VTOL taxis
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  in the United States. These are quiet, clean and could
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  carry you across a city above all the traffic below.
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  And there is Lilium, a German company who are building sleek
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  electric flying vehicles that look like something straight out
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  of a film. Oh, and here is a fun fact for
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  you. In Dubai, flying taxis are
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  already being tested on real passengers.
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  Real people have already been flown around in them.
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  The future is not coming. In some places it has already
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  arrived. OK, now to the original
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  question, when do we actually get them?
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  Experts think it could be somewhere between 10 and 30
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  years before flying cars are widely available.
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  Now I know that sounds like a long time, but think about it
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  this way. 30 years ago nobody had a smartphone, nobody was
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  streaming videos, nobody was asking a little speaker in their
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  kitchen what the weather was going to be like.
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  Technology moves fast. The honest answer is that flying
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  taxis in big cities could be a thing by around 2040.
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  That is not that far away. If you are 8 years old right
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  now, you would be in your 20s by then.
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  You could be catching a flying taxi to work while your own kids
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  think it is completely normal. Private flying cars that normal
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  families can own might take a bit longer, maybe 2050 or
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  beyond. There are still rules to write,
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  landing pads to build, batteries to improve and governments to
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  convince. But it will happen.
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  The money is being spent, the engineers are working, and the
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  dream is very much alive, not just exciting because they are
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  cool, although they are. They are extremely cool.
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  They could actually change life in some really important ways.
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  Emergency services could get to people in trouble much faster.
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  If someone needed an ambulance urgently and the roads were
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  jammed, a flying vehicle could get there in a fraction of the
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  time. That could save lives.
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  Remote areas that are hard to reach by Rd. could get supplies,
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  medical help, and connections to the rest of the world much more
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  easily. Think about somewhere in the
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  mountains or deep in a forest where no roads go.
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  A flying car changes everything for those communities.
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  And yes, you would never be late for school again.
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  Well, probably, unless you managed to forget your bag and
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  had to go back, which, let us be honest, some of us would
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  absolutely still do. Right then it is time for
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  everyone's favorite part of the show, the Curious Kid cast quiz.
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  Three questions, multiple choice, no cheating ready
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  question one. What was the name of one of the
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  very first flying car prototypes built all the way back in 1917?
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  Was it A the Sky Buggy? B the Curtis Autoplane, C the
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  Aero Wheeler 3000? Have a think?
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  The answer is B the Curtis Autoplane, built in 1917.
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  It had wings, it had a propeller, and it mostly just
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  hopped around on the ground looking confused.
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  Bless it. Question two.
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  What does V tall stand for? The type of flying car that can
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  take off straight up like a helicopter?
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  Is it a very tall orange lorry? B vertical take off and landing.
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  C vehicle that obviously levitates Take your time.
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  The answer is B vertical take off and landing.
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  Although very tall orange lorry is genuinely a wonderful guess
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  and I respect it enormously. Question 3.
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  In which city are flying taxis already being tested on real
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  passengers right now? Is it A London, B New York, C
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  Dubai? Last one, you've got this, The
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  answer is C Dubai. Real passengers have already
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  been flown in flying taxi prototypes there.
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  Pretty amazing. And that is it for today's
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  episode of the Curious Kid cast, Flying Cars.
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  They're not here yet, but they are coming and the people
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  building them are working really hard to make them safe,
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  affordable, and maybe one day completely normal.
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  A massive thank you to Henry from Birmingham for the
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  brilliant question and thank you to every single one of you for
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  listening today. You are all officially Curious
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  Kids, and that is the best thing to be.
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  Now. If you enjoyed this episode,
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  please do share it with a friend, a sibling, A classmate,
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  or that one adult who always thinks they know everything.
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  A little curiosity never hurt anyone.
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  And if you have a question you would like us to answer on the
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  show, head to our website at curiouskidcast.com and send it
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  in. Your question could be the next
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  episode and while you're there hit subscribe so you never miss
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  one until next time keep asking questions keep wondering and
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  remember the sky is not the limit it's just the beginning.
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  Hey, we'll. Let your questions rise.
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  Listen up to the endless sky. Everyone is as far so bright,
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  curious, kick ass, ignite the light.