February 2012

Young kids always seem to be fascinated by motor vehicles. They’re attracted to anything that looks like it could be a car. Kids often will pick up these car-shaped toys and pretend they can fly.
8-18 Media reporters Julien Malherbe, Will Guter and Gregorios Mihalopoulos were interested in cars and flying things as well. So we decided to do a story about what kinds of flying and driving vehicles they will be using when they become adults. What will these ten-year-olds be driving when they’re forty?
Flying cars probably are the most common idea of future transportation. Actually, these already have been invented and soon may become a little more common. The Transition, a two-seater airplane that can drive on streets and highways, was scheduled to enter production in late 2011. These car-planes will be produced by a company called Terrafugia; Latin for “escape from the land.”
According to Terrafugia.com, the Transition takes about thirty seconds to convert from a plane to a car or a car to a plane. The wings fold, the engine power is redirected, and you’re ready to go. It was designed as a plane that could drive rather than a car that could fly, which is why, according to the Web site, it worked better than other similar designs. Richard Gersh, vice president of business development for Terrafugia, says the Transition is not intended to replace cars or airplanes, but rather to be used for enjoyment.
“We expect to sell in the hundreds per year as opposed to the millions per year that they sell cars. The list price is going to be between $200,000 and $250,000 per unit. It’s not being marketed to the masses, but rather to those people who are currently pilots, or people who would like to become pilots and enjoy the thrill of flying,” he said.
So if that’s not what these ten-year-olds likely will be driving, what is it that they’ll have? They may not be driving at all. Maybe they’ll have fully automated cars, where you tell the car where to go and it will take you there, no steering required. These vehicles may not only be sold to those with drivers’ licenses.
An article by Thomas Frey, Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute explains that many others also could benefit from these automobiles.
“This ‘control feature’ will open up huge additional markets for automotive companies to sell to the elderly, families with kids too young to drive, and the visually, physically and mentally impaired,” he writes.
Fully automated vehicles currently are being developed. According to Randy Van Portfliet, Superior region engineer for the Michigan Department of Transportation, these cars are much closer to becoming a reality than most people believe . . .

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