If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic and wished you could just take to the sky—you’re not alone! Flying cars have been a long-standing fantasy for both automobile companies and everyday drivers. But if you were hoping that you’d get one soon, boy do I have bad news for you.
Flying Cars are The Holy Grail of Sci-Fi
Sci-fi has a knack for predicting future technology, and in nearly every futuristic sci-fi book or movie, one thing remains surprisingly consistent—at some point, we ditch tires, and all our cars take to the skies.
Exactly how we achieve these flying cars tends to get glossed over, but despite the lack of detail, the idea isn’t pure fantasy. Already, there are several companies trying their hardest to design a practical flying car, and I’ll admit to holding out hope that we see one soon.
I Watched a Flying Car Demo And My Hopes Crashed
Lately, there’s been a lot of buzz about one flying car in particular—the Alef Model A, developed by Alef Aeronautics. With so many videos and articles popping up, I started to get excited that flying cars might finally be on the horizon. But then I watched a demo, and all my enthusiasm evaporated.
As you can see in the video, Alef’s flying car has some pretty obvious problems—starting with the fact that it’s not really a car. Sure, it has wheels and looks like a car, but the second it takes off, the loud whir of propellers gives away the truth: it’s a giant drone with a car-shaped shell.
Once you know this, it won’t come as a surprise that the Alef flying car is not very good at doing car things. It is classified as a Low-Speed Vehicle (LSV), meaning it’s legally restricted to a top speed of 25 mph (not that I’d trust it to go any faster with those skinny tires) and can’t be driven on roads with speed limits over 35 mph.
Also, if this top-down image of the Model A that Alef shared is anything to go by, the vehicle is very likely missing a lot of standard car features to keep it light enough to fly. So if you’re considering coughing up the $300,000 price tag, just know you might be getting a vehicle without basic comforts like suspension, air conditioning, or even proper soundproofing.
That last one could be especially brutal because the Alef Model A is very noisy. Alef envisions a future where thousands of these things fill the skies, but listen to how loud a single one is. Now imagine that multiplied a thousandfold. New York rush-hour traffic would sound like a gentle hum in comparison.
Even the flight demo wasn’t exactly confidence-inspiring. We see the vehicle lift off and fly over a parked car, but it moves sluggishly and tilts awkwardly in midair. Alef claims it can rotate and fly sideways in “flight mode,” but so far, we’ve only seen that in CGI animations—not in real life.
There were also several red flags regarding the demo. The news crew covering the demo had to film from a distance, and at no point did we see anyone actually enter the vehicle and fly it. In fact, reporters weren’t even allowed to look inside. Alef’s CEO, Jim Dukhovny, says they’re keeping some proprietary technology under wraps. But I have another theory: they know the tech isn’t ready, and they don’t want us to realize it yet.
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Flying Cars Need To Get A Lot Better Before They Can Replace Your Car
Alef’s underwhelming demo isn’t just a company problem—it reflects the broader technological limitations holding back the dream of flying cars. In the movies, flying cars can just take to the skies thanks to convenient, barely-explained technology like antigravity or a Mr. Fusion reactor. But in reality, we don’t have such luxuries.
Right now, the closest we’ve come to flying cars are eVTOLs—electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that use rotors and propellers to achieve lift. And while they hold promise as passenger drones, they’re far from ready to replace your car as your daily driver. There are a few reasons for that.
First, is that eVTOLs are just all-around worse than regular cars for getting around. They may be faster, but they’re also far more expensive, significantly louder, unwieldy, and missing half the features you expect in your average car.
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Battery life is another major limitation. Solid-state batteries are still a while away, and today’s lithium-ion batteries aren’t efficient enough for prolonged flights, meaning most eVTOLs can only stay airborne for about 20–30 minutes. To make things worse, since other systems in the car also need power, you have to think of everything in terms of trade-offs. Do you turn on the heating to keep from freezing or do you go without and squeeze out a few extra miles of range?
Weight constraints are also a big issue. With eVTOLs, you have to carefully balance payload and range, which means that they probably wouldn’t do very well with family road trips or grocery runs.
The reality is that, with today’s technology, flying cars simply aren’t practical enough to gain much steam. Switching to one would mean sacrificing many of the conveniences we take for granted in regular cars, like range, affordability, storage, and ease of use.
Get Ready For Traffic Jams of the Sky
Even if flying cars become a reality, they probably won’t solve traffic problems—they’ll just move the congestion from roads to the skies. The big selling point of flying cars is the idea that you would be able to cut down travel time by flying directly from point A to point B in a straight, uninterrupted line. But that vision only works if you’re the only one in the air.
In reality, if flying cars become common, there will be thousands of them in the sky at any given moment, not to mention drones, helicopters, and planes. If everyone tried to fly in straight lines, we’d end up with a chaotic and dangerous mess.
To avoid midair collisions, we’d need to expand air traffic control systems and create designated air corridors—essentially sky highways. And just like regular roads, these routes may be winding or congested.
If enough people take to the skies, we could end up with the same traffic problems we were trying to escape from—only this time, in midair. You might even find yourself stuck in sky traffic, longing for the simplicity of the road again.
Maybe Let’s Fix Public Transport First?
We have a habit of looking for flashy, futuristic solutions to problems that could be solved with simpler, more practical methods. Flying cars are often pitched as the answer to road congestion, but a far cheaper and more effective solution would be to improve public transportation.
Investing in better road infrastructure, maintaining existing systems, and expanding subway and bus networks would do far more to ease congestion—and at a fraction of the cost of integrating flying cars into our cities.
So, while I’m hopeful that flying cars will eventually become a reality, I’m pretty convinced they won’t take off anytime soon—at least not without some major technological breakthroughs. Even then, we’ll need to do a lot of work to ensure they are a safe and viable means of transportation in our cities. Until then, we’re stuck down here in traffic for a little while longer.
