I work on self-driving flying cars, and I can assure you that the R&D phase includes work that _is_ as glamorous as it sounds, but there are also a ton of i's to dot and t's to cross. The very nature of building a usable product requires reliability, and reliability requires extensively covering all cases. Systematically going through everything is a lot of work. The best advice that I can give is to seek joy in solving the "industry" version of your project (the joy of producing a truly reliable product - reliability is really hard), and/or to pursue your passions in side projects.