What’s a piece of technology you’re convinced will exist in 20 years?

I know a lot of people immediately think of flying cars, and I have to admit, they’ve been promised for what feels like forever.

Every generation seems convinced they’re only a few years away. Yet somehow we’re still sitting in traffic, wondering why the person three cars ahead hasn’t noticed the light changed.

But I do think we’ll get there.

Not necessarily with everyone owning a flying car, though. If history has taught us anything, it’s that new technology usually starts off eye-wateringly expensive before slowly becoming normal.

What I can genuinely imagine is something a little different.

Driverless flying taxis.

Imagine standing outside your house, opening an app, and instead of a car pulling up at the kerb, a quiet electric aircraft lands on a designated pad nearby. You climb in, tell it where you’re going, and it simply… goes.

No steering wheel.

No traffic jams.

No arguing over who forgot to indicate.

Just computers doing what computers generally do best—following instructions.

The engineering doesn’t actually seem that far-fetched anymore. We already have autonomous vehicles being tested, drones capable of carrying significant loads, and electric aircraft making impressive progress. Put those technologies together, refine them over a couple of decades, and suddenly yesterday’s science fiction starts looking remarkably practical.

Of course, knowing my luck, the first time I stepped into one it would decide to update its software halfway through the journey.

“Please remain calm while FlightOS installs 7,483 important security updates…”

Maybe I’d wait for version two.

Still, I think this is one of those ideas that will eventually become so ordinary our grandchildren will struggle to understand why we spent hours crawling along motorways every Friday afternoon.

Just as we smile at the idea of people once believing the internet would never catch on, they’ll probably smile at us for thinking flying taxis sounded impossible.

The future has a funny habit of arriving one small step at a time.

Stay safe,

Bc