“Where we're going, we don't need roads.”
Doc Brown said it in Back to the Future but now there's growing research from Ford and the University of Michigan backing the science fiction phenomenon of flying cars. This time, it's coming in the form of a sustainability assessment. As it turns out, the flying car could be a cleaner alternative to the traditional automobile.
“There are so many moving parts with VTOLs. Regulations, how do we insure their safety, the noise,” said Noah Furbush, a graduate student in the engineering school. “It's very important to note though, this is the sustainable story. We want these things to be deployed sustainably and in the best way possible so it services the most people.”
A VTOL, or electric vehicle takeoff and landing aircraft, is a pretty green mode of transportation. While the battery it runs on might be charged by a power plant that does produce greenhouse gas emissions, the craft itself wouldn't. Because of its potential as a cleaner alternative, two former summer interns at Ford followed up their research with the car company at the University of Michigan's Center for Sustainable Systems. Their goal was to understand if the flying car could be more energy-efficient than cars that drove on the ground.
Researchers pulled data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and factored in several VTOL prototypes that have already been designed. Using that data, they built a physics-based model that computes energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. They found the farther a craft would have to travel the better it was for the environment.
In short, flying cars would be practical for the environment - as long as the commute is longer than 20 miles.
http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/ford-umich-study-shows-flying-cars-are-both-faster-and-greener
Video Link: https://youtu.be/bsxQiKT1I5g