Emergent modes of Transportation are becoming increasingly paramount to our everyday lives. Simultaneously however, our surface transportation infrastructure is suffering from overuse (e.g., traffic congestion, roadway disrepair), which necessitates novel mechanisms for "motorized mobility". Current pathways to overcoming these limitations include the gradual transition towards connected and autonomous motor vehicles for human transport, as well as "drone" technologies that are steadily revolutionizing airborne egress and transport logistics for surveillance, package deliveries, and agriculture. Longer-term, Transportation scientists are already investigating the technology – and regulations – associated with "passenger drones" - a convergent form of ground/air vehicle transportation - specifically, the once-seemingly futuristic notion of The Flying Car.
In this paper, we conduct an extensive review of current literature to explore emergent Flying Car technological capabilities (e.g., Cognitive systems, AI, Machine learning) – each requiring appropriate regulations and governance - to become fully sustainable. For specific benefit to the PSMA subcommittee, a targeted focus is placed on the rapidly emerging Policies and Standards issues – each with relevance to wide-ranging M&S disciplines - that will inform future Test, Evaluation, Validation, and Deployment of Flying Cars. Namely, this paper will explore issues pertinent to Safety, Environment, Navigation, Infrastructure, Logistics/Sustainability, Cybersecurity, and Human Factors (e.g., technology acceptance). By addressing these Policies in advance, we can forecast and enable Readiness for the anticipated impacts upon the foundational aspects of I/ITSEC: Training, Simulation, and Education.
The primary findings of this paper are driven by qualitative and anecdotal reporting that is representative of the present state-of-the-art. However, this paper will conclude with a preliminary quantitative analysis exploring Human Factors data associated with projected acceptance of Flying Car technology. This data will help to inform next-generation Policies and Standards associated with the gradual advancement of Flying Cars, and the resulting impacts on related M&S domains of interest.