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Who the hell thought the flying car was a hot idea? And other similar success stories from the sillier side of innovation.

We're a little behind in posting episodes, so please enjoy the multiple feeds this week!

Episode Sources:
https://www.alphr.com/technology/1000477/the-5-worst-ideas-in-tech-history/
https://www.redbull.com/nz-en/weirdest-worst-tech-startup-ideas
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612930/the-10-worst-technologies-of-the-21st-century/
https://www.inc.com/sean-wise/mit-announced-top-10-worst-tech-innovations-of-21st-century-heres-what-they-all-have-in-common.html

EPISODE EXCERPT

We’ve been dancing on the light side on MSP for the last couple of weeks. It couldn’t last. The pull of the dark is simply too strong for Matt Armitage to bear. Today we look at some breakthroughs in technology and ask: was that a good idea?

Are you in the driving seat today?
Nicely lined up for me!
Because I want to talk about flying cars.
Which are once again in the news because one of Malaysia’s Ministers has been talking about the country becoming an early adopter of airborne car traffic.
After talking about a local company with a flying vehicle prototype under development in Japan.

Except it’s not really a car, is it?
No. From what I understand it’s based on drone technology.
So I imagine it’s remote controlled or autonomous, whether or not it carries passengers.
Which is why I wanted to talk about some of the terrible ideas we have that simply refuse to go away.
Flying cars has been a sci-fi dream for at least 50 years.
We’re sending probes to Mars, but by and large, cars are still limited to roads.

We’ve had plenty of flying cars over the years…
I’m not even going to list them.
Wikipedia is a great source of knowledge about the common sense breakdown that is flying cars.
It’s full of the good, the bad and the ugly. Just without the good.
We’ve been making flying cars since the 1960s.
Roger Moore flew a car come plane in the Bond movie The Man With the Golden Gun in 1974.
Which was built by AMC, a major automaker in the US at the time.

Didn’t the Bond series have a submarine car, too?
Yeah, a Lotus Turbo Esprit.
Which I think could really dive under water.
of course, there are plenty of car boat things as well.
Cars that can float. Boats that can drive on land.
Motoring shows love to do those stunts where they have to develop some kind of hybrid.

But the ideas never take off?
No. Even if the actual cars can.
We have the technology to do this.
We’re not being cheated out of a world of star Wars style Speeders because we’re waiting for technology to catch up.
The technology is there. The problem is the idea itself.
It’s not good. It’s like setting your feet on fire.
You can do it. But you’d really be better off not.