Saturday, December 06, 2025 | 10:01 PM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

We'll get flying cars to go with 140 characters

It's just a matter of when. The question is whether anyone will need one

A new crop of start-ups hopes to make the flying car a reality. These include Slovakia’s Aeromobil. Photo: Reuters
premium

A new crop of start-ups hopes to make the flying car a reality. These include Slovakia’s Aeromobil. Photo: Reuters

Noah Smith | Bloomberg
Nothing illustrates the divide between science fiction and reality better than the flying car. In movies, books and cartoon shows from the mid-20th century, people hop in their car, lift off and fly to work. In reality, we’re still enduring traffic jams or commuting by bus or train. We have supercomputers in our pockets, and deaf people can hear, but the flying car has consistently eluded us. As venture capitalist and PayPal Holdings Inc. founder Peter Thiel famously griped, “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters” — a reference to the length of a Twitter post.
 
It’s not