flying cars will never be a thing because the efficiency of getting an object into the air and keeping it in the air is always going to be more inefficient than rolling it along the ground with wheels.  Ok, never is a long time, but not until we have &quot;mr fusions&quot; and more cheap safe power than we know what to do with.  We will get automated cars before this (as people have pointed out automation would be required for flight).  When automated cars are ubiquitous the efficiency and speed of ground transport will be that much higher and personal flight will be even less attractive.