Flying Car Costs $599K–and It’s Now Street Legal in Holland

Some observations:<p>* Fully fuelled, it carries about 170 kg of pax and luggage, so basically one couple.<p>* Max driving speed and &quot;high cruise&quot; speed are 160 km&#x2F;h, around 100 mph or 86 knots (slow for a plane, and average for a car in Germany :-)<p>* Max range 350 to 500 km in about 2 to 3 hours, depending on cruise speed and number of pax.<p>* Takeoff in 200 to 300 meter, landing in &lt;50 m.<p>* It&#x27;s a gyrocopter, so takeoff is a bit complicated, and stalling is not so much of an issue. It is piloted differently from a fixed wing aircraft though (or a helicopter).<p>* The rotor is in autorotation mode all the time, so with an engine failure it just turns into a glider.

The thing I don&#x27;t understand about flying cars is why you would ever drive it like a car? If you have the option of flying instead then surely that&#x27;s <i>always</i> better. If you&#x27;re driving it to save fuel, then you end up driving something that needs to drag all the parts necessary to fly around as well, which is far less efficient than a normal car. It seems like a crazy compromise that fails to capture the benefits of either flying or driving to me.