Flying Cars?

Future fiction is always more fun when the cars fly, isn't it? However, I clicked the link to the video clip on this news spot and checked out one that really does. This is a big machine...not your average-sized car that's merely capable of whisking into the sky. Yes, a flying car does exist but, for the sake of future fiction, will we be driving them in 25 years, 50 years, 100 years? It's the timeline thing that gets you in future fiction...how to assess our progress and plug it into fiction?

I don't see us flying around in 2031, the climactic year in my book Darwin's Orphans. If flying cars used gas like today's -- like the one in the ABC news spot apparently does -- the fuel price alone would keep us all out of the skies. So, it'll likely be another few decades on the ground as we migrate to more earthly advancements: fuel changes (hopefully we solve the hydrogen production mystery) and computerized assistance (taking GPS to the next level and protecting us with it).

On this note, there are still many advances in future fiction for the automobile we can ponder. Taking to the skies opens up a whole can of worms: how will 3-D "roads" be charted? What can we do to marry today's air traffic control capabilities with ground traffic control techniques. This will be fun stuff to watch ... if you're around in 50 to 100 years.