The traffic lights on the Nakagawa Bridge floated in the blue sky

I often hear news about automated driving of vehicles on land. While there is a range from Level 1, which is simply driver assistance, to Level 5, which is fully automated driving, some driverless automated cabs are already in operation in the United States and China. The era of driverless cars driving around town is just around the corner. With this trend, the time will come when it will become a hobby to operate a car by oneself, using the steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake. The act of driving by oneself will be similar to the act of purchasing a manual car in today's sense.

In contrast to the news about self-driving cars, I do not hear much about flying cars. It seems to me that flying cars, not self-driving cars, appeared in the future depicted in the books I used to read as a child, but by the time I realized it, it was self-driving that had taken the leading role as the future means of transportation. This is probably because there are so many more issues to be cleared for flying cars compared to automated cars that only drive on the ground. In addition to technology, new infrastructure such as takeoff/landing sites and new air traffic control systems are required, which is a higher hurdle than for automated driving. Even traffic signs will have to be newly installed for flying cars. Perhaps the day will come when traffic lights that seem to float in the blue sky will be installed here and there, like the traffic lights in the photo taken at Nakagawa Bridge in Katsushika.

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