I want my hover cars!
October 22, 2010 1:47 PM   Subscribe

Thinking that the future was supposed to include hover cars? You don't have to feel ripped-off any more.
posted by empatterson (38 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Been there, vaporwared that. -- cortex



 
It'll be commercial in five years!
posted by Artw at 1:52 PM on October 22, 2010


I'm pretty sure that flying car has been in the works since the early 80's, at least. And you might have just stumbled on that website, but the copyright date says the site was made sometime last year. So unless you've seen one flying by, this is, regretfully, non-news.
posted by crunchland at 1:52 PM on October 22, 2010


I've been waiting for my Moller Skycar so long that I decided it was just easier to grow wings and fly myself to the destination.
posted by quin at 1:53 PM on October 22, 2010


Has anything changed since 2006?
posted by JaredSeth at 1:53 PM on October 22, 2010


I hope they're really quiet, or they make a cute Jetson jet-car sound. I wouldn't any new technology want to add to the noise of our autogeddon.
posted by uraniumwilly at 1:54 PM on October 22, 2010




This is so old I saw it on the Discovery Channel.
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:55 PM on October 22, 2010 [2 favorites]


You know what today needs? A fusion energy post.
posted by Artw at 1:55 PM on October 22, 2010


Has anything changed since 2006?

Or 2007?
posted by cosmac at 1:55 PM on October 22, 2010


Oh well. I should have triple checked before seeing it was a double. Sorry.
posted by empatterson at 1:55 PM on October 22, 2010


Moller has been doing this scam for 25-30 years now.

I don't know who his publicist is but he or she deserves a raise.

Moller is a scam - he occasionally (about every 5-10 years) creeps out of the woodwork and gets some funding from some government chump after he does the Internet publicity bit but he has never managed to produce a single vehicle that actually works in over 25 years.
posted by Poet_Lariat at 1:56 PM on October 22, 2010


http://www.downside.com/scams/moller/

and/or

http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/11535/skycar-fraud-will-i-ever-get-my-flying-car/

Too bad, since it would be awesome to have something like this. Except, you know, not a fraud.
posted by AaronRaphael at 1:56 PM on October 22, 2010


The front-page copy:
From your garage to your destination, the M400 Skycar can cruise comfortably at 275 MPH (maximum speed of 375 MPH)
The most impressive video: It sort of hovers there, wobbling.

I believe this achieves its maximum speed using free energy from the Steorn Orbo.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:57 PM on October 22, 2010


Skycar Rescue!!!
posted by cosmac at 1:59 PM on October 22, 2010


ND¢, cosmac, That should replace the FPP. Priceless!
posted by empatterson at 2:00 PM on October 22, 2010


How are they supposed to build a flying car when they can't figure out the <title> tag?
posted by brundlefly at 2:04 PM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


Excuse me, but I'm waiting for my hoverboard, not no stinking car!
posted by MaryDellamorte at 2:06 PM on October 22, 2010


I read about this in Popular Mechanics in the mid-nineties. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me three or four times, shame on me. FUCK YOU SKYCAR
posted by Think_Long at 2:07 PM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm calling fraud on this, too. In the video that Wolfdog linked to above, you can see the arm of a big crane in the background. In another video (the test flight on a foggy day), if you look closely, you can see wires holding the car, and in fact a pulley or something above the car in the sky that moves with the car. The whole thing is bullshit.
posted by nushustu at 2:07 PM on October 22, 2010


I remember reading about Moller's skycar in the mid-90s in book called "Future Stuff". Nothing on that webpage really convinces me it's still not total vapourware. Hope I'm wrong though.
posted by modernnomad at 2:08 PM on October 22, 2010


The thing that makes me so sad about the whole vaporware thing, is that back in about '97 or so, when I first heard of it, I was legitimately excited. I really wanted this to be a thing.

I had dreams of zooming along, over everyone else, laughing at the earthbound fools needing to rely on their "wheels".

And here we are, a decade plus later, and I'm still one of those fools.

Damn you Moller!!

*shakes fist*
posted by quin at 2:08 PM on October 22, 2010


Ha, this is the book I was talking about. Published in 1989.
posted by modernnomad at 2:09 PM on October 22, 2010


"Here's that man Moller again in his flying saucer… Moller—he's actually Prof. Paul S. Moller of the University of California—has been working on his saucer for five years now [see PS July '66 and June '67]."
Popular Science, September 1967

[see also Popular Science, October 1982, March 1987, cover story March 2000, August 2002, and cover story January 2005.
posted by designbot at 2:12 PM on October 22, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'd like to see the look on Moller's face when someone tells him about these.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 2:15 PM on October 22, 2010


I AM THRILLED AND DELIGHTED 11!!!
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:15 PM on October 22, 2010


Sorry--that was meant for the CAPS LOCK thread.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:15 PM on October 22, 2010


Okay, viewing both of these again, (and it's probably written somewhere on the website, but I'm too lazy to look), the crane might be there as a safety precaution. It's attached to the car and ensures that it won't veer off suddenly and crash into something, but it isn't necessarily pulling the car off the ground.

That said, in the foggy video, you can see that the crane is the only thing keeping the car even remotely in the same place. Which means that, were it not for the crane, the thing would fly off in some random direction, and probably crash.

Either way, it is clearly not ready for prime-time.
posted by nushustu at 2:18 PM on October 22, 2010


I hope they're really quiet, or they make a cute Jetson jet-car sound. I wouldn't any new technology want to add to the noise of our autogeddon.

Drove a Nissan LEAF today, and unlike media reports of it making electronic noises at low speeds to alert pedestrians, these were totally WTF-level quiet. It was pretty futuristic to drive/watch drive by (even if the interior was standard low-grade economy car.)

In fact, standing in line waiting to drive, watching two rows of cars go in and out, it was not unlike standing in line for some kind of amusement part ride. Very Disneyland Autopia, albeit without the noise or metal-flake paint jobs.
posted by davejay at 2:19 PM on October 22, 2010


The FAQ answers the super important question of "Where do you put the shopping?" which delights me for some reason. It also makes me think of using these for transporting the sort of cargo that goes in my family's station wagon, such as large pieces of wood that get stuck out the back with the trunk tied down. I wonder if that would be dangerous with hovercars?
posted by NoraReed at 2:19 PM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


This post will be deleted before the Moller takes off
posted by dov3 at 2:26 PM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


Where can I trade this old future in for a new future?
posted by TwelveTwo at 2:30 PM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


i will stiill have to sell it in Mos Eisley
posted by clavdivs at 2:34 PM on October 22, 2010


Either way, it is clearly not ready for prime-time.

I remember first reading about Moller's skycar ~20 years ago. It really hasn't moved any further than it was back then. With all these millions spent over the years, you'd think he'd have perfected it by now or at least worked out some of the major kinks (like the fact that it won't hover in one place unless it's attached to a crane; the same was true for his earlier flying saucer-like prototype). Given that there's also no real demand for a flying car, I don't think it will ever be ready for the prime-time.
posted by daniel_charms at 2:36 PM on October 22, 2010


It'll be commercial in five years!

Next year will be the year of Linux on desktop!
posted by daniel_charms at 2:39 PM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


Nuclear fusion linux desktop.
posted by Artw at 2:39 PM on October 22, 2010


This makes me feel really silly about being excited about my new Toyota.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:57 PM on October 22, 2010


The closest thing yet.
posted by hanoixan at 3:04 PM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


Skip the flying cars, caravan airships are the way to go.
posted by robertc at 3:05 PM on October 22, 2010


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