Tracey Follows on Tesla’s Flying Car

Tracey Follows on BBC Radio 4's World at One | LISTEN

She joined BBC Radio 4's World at One to discuss renewed speculation about Tesla's flying Roadster, and why the dream of the flying car continues to capture our imagination.

She argued on air, there's an important distinction between a car that can fly and a flying car. Much of what we imagine when we hear those words belongs to a mid-century vision of the future — a world of Jetsons-style vehicles and personal flying machines.

But the future of aerial mobility may look very different from those familiar images.

The conversation touched on something central to her work on Big Futurity: the power of spectacular images of tomorrow to shape what we expect from technological progress.

The future isn't just about which technologies become possible. It's also about which versions of tomorrow we continue to imagine.