I'm not complaining, I just find it a truly fascinating phenomenon. In 20 years we'll be reading this same article written by someone else for the 16 thousand time.But hopefully that article will end end with "to go on sale this later this year"
So why are helicopters still relatively rare, and what is different in a "flying car" that people dream about? It's not 4 tiny wheels after all (and you can get a helicopter with tiny wheels).
* Price: helicopters are expensive to buy, and very expensive to maintain. You need about 1 hour of maintenance for every 10 flight hours.
* Fuel cost: vertical thrust for lift is very energy intensive.
* Difficult to pilot: needs professional training.
* Noise and airspace restrictions: many cities do not allow personal helicopters to fly low or land in urban areas due to noise and fear of accidents.
"Difficult to pilot" is the only area where I see significant possible improvements in the near future, if autopilot gets good enough to remove the pilot altogether.
But there is no obvious engineering breakthrough on the horizon that will improve the maintenance, energy use or noise issues. Maybe if there is a breakthrough in battery technology, then electric helicopters could improve on both the energy and maintenance costs, but that is not really up to people working on "flying cars".
Funny that you say so, since this article says this but I don't think it makes it more true
> Kitty Hawk, the company backed by Mr. Page, is trying to be one of the first out of the gate and plans to start selling its vehicle by the end of the year.
Best guess, we can solve the safety issue. With enough on-board safety systems, pilot training, appropriate rules of the road, and mandatory transponders, we could make things safe enough. But that still leaves noise. What conceivable propeller or turbine system could lift a thousand pounds while being as quiet as a modern car? Probably none of them.