Rolls-Royce dips hand in flying car waters; expected to launch next decade

We were first introduced to the concept of flying cars with the Hollywood classic Back to the Future. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, which was of course disappointing. Then we spent a long time convincing ourselves that the concept wasn't practical, and a waste of money. Until now.

We have already heard about the Airbus and Audi collaboration, trying to build a city car/flying taxi concept. Uber is also said to be working on a flying taxi hub in Paris. Then we have Kitty Hawk, a secret company founded by Google co-founder Larry Page -- it's working on a project called Cora, which is another flying taxi.

But there's a new player joining the race- Rolls-Royce. Don't be confused, we aren't talking about the luxury car company. We are talking about the engine company that parted ways with the car company decades ago.

The company is planning to dip its hands in the flying vehicle waters and has drawn plans to build an electric vehicle that would be able to reach speeds up to 400 kilometers per hour (250 miles per hour). The company believes that the vehicle could see the light of day as early as the next decade, a timeline that its competition has been aiming.

Rob Watson, head of Rolls-Royce's electric team, believes the company is "placed well to play a leading role in the emerging world of personal air mobility."

"We believe that given the work we are doing today to develop hybrid electric propulsion capabilities," said Rolls-Royce, as reported by the BBC, "this model could be available by the early to mid 2020s, provided that a viable commercial model for its introduction can be created."

However, Elon Musk has a different opinion about flying cars. It seems that Musk believes flying cars are going to be a failure. In fact, he thinks they could potentially chop your head off.

"There will be zillions of these things flying all over the place and, inevitably, somebody's not going to service their car properly and they're going to drop a hubcap and it's going to guillotine somebody," said Musk, speaking at his event for The Boring Company.

This isn't the first time Elon Musk has rubbished an idea of a future tech. Elon Musk believes that in the age of AI, humans can create "an immortal dictator from which we would never escape." Musk can be seen saying this in the latest documentary called "Do You Trust This Computer?"