Here Comes 2010 - So Where Are Flying Cars?

I've been waiting a long time for electric cars to appear since the mid-1980's because I can't stand the smell of gasoline nor the continual rise of the price per gallon. Other more futurist visionaries have even been waiting for flying cars! Apparently, even flying cars are a strong possibility on the horizon.

When I was a kid in the 1960's I remember being shocked at witnessing a car drive into the lake at Lake Tahoe California. They had driven their amphibian convertible into the water that then became a mini boat! I couldn't believe what I had witnessed at the time. How much fun would that be to take a nice scenic drive at Lake Tahoe then into the lake for a boat ride.

I'm continually getting jolts of culture shock from the fabulous new technologies that have appeared recently. One of my favorites is Sirius Satellite voice activated radio. Though I don't own the technology yet, I've seen it advertised where a driver of a vehicle simply states what they'd like to hear and the song plays instantaneously! The other feature I've noted in satellite radio is the digital display of the artists name, song title and perhaps year the song was released.

These new music distribution systems are all mind boggeling for those of us who grew up with turntable record players, not to mention commercial radio. It's too bad people couldn't have all this fabulous technology back in the 60's when there was a lot more talent and quality music producers. If you really think about it, it's truly amazing how far technology has come within our lifetimes. Why, back when I was in high school in the 70's, they didn't even have VCR's, ATM's or fax machines yet!

Then of course, there are the truly revolutionary Star Trek like beam me up flip cell phones! I had a briefcase model mobile phone way back in the 1980's when I was selling young technology. Back then there were very few cell base locations for the transmitters to signal to and calls were commonly dropped. It wasn't until the mid-1990's that the cell phone technology finally took off. I was one of the few in the 90's to have my own Sprint Cell phone, but it wasn't a flip phone because they hadn't developed to that level yet. Then, I rebelled a while from the cell phone craze until I was forced to get my first flip phone for business needs. I've grown into the technology and use my cell phone quite frequently now. I don't know what I'd do without the convenience of my phone and I'm sure others feel the same way.

Getting back to the topic of cars, I am certain we all could have been driving electric cars by now had the oil and car companies not deliberately stunted the industry. Why, we could have even had solar powered cars by now, or cars that run on other kinds of fuels. As for the potential arrival of flying cars, I honestly don't believe there will ever be a mass market appeal to such dangerous small vehicles.