The flying car has finally arrived

Carl Dietrich, he is the chief executive and co-founder of Terrafugia, an aerospace company. Mr Carl has been working to bring consumers to the prospect of a practical flying car, envisioning a vehicle that does not require its operator to be a trained pilot. The company, Terrafugia, announced the concept of TF-X, a four-seat, plug-in hybrid electric car that can do vertical take-offs and landings.

The good thing is that the flying car operator won't need to have the skills of a pilot to fly it.

"Once you're flying, the actual operation of all the flight control surfaces is going to be computer controlled because, frankly, the computer can do it better than a pilot.

"They don't need to know those things because the computer is plugged in to a data network that automatically helps them plan the flight path, avoid other air traffic and air space restrictions, things of that nature," says Mr Carl. He explains that operators would still have to make high-level, critical decisions, like determining whether it's safe to take off and land or approve the landing zone in advance.

"Anything that happens on the ground, the person is going to make a call," says Mr Carl.