If someone was frozen in 1950 and woke up in the present day, there are a lot of new inventions that would shock them – iPhones, smart gadgets, virtual reality headsets, and so forth.

But eventually, despite all our amazing advancements, they’re bound to make one complaint:

“Where are all the flying cars?!”

It just doesn’t make sense that we don’t have them yet. In fact, we’ve been promised flying cars for nearly 200 years – the earliest records show a patent for a “steam-powered flying carriage” in 1841!

The Convair Car Model 118 was a real “flying car” from 1947. It ran out of fuel and crashed during a test flight because the pilot checked the CAR’S fuel gauge (full), not the PLANE’S (empty). Don’t you hate when that happens?

However, despite multiple attempts over the years by various manufacturers, the whole flying car idea never truly took off. Even if the models were successful, they weren’t suitable for mass production. But all that’s about to change…

Flyer is the world’s first fully functional mass-market flying car – and it also happens to be 100% electric. Invented by personal aviation company Kitty Hawk, the project is backed by Google co-founder Larry King and even picked up some serious buzz thanks to a shout-out from YouTuber Casey Neistat.

These bona-fide flying cars are entering testing in the New Zealand market and will eventually roll out worldwide. The good news is that you do not need a pilot’s license to operate them, but the bad news is that they’re not allowed in congested areas yet (so much for skipping the morning commute).

Now, before you trade in your outdated ground-based transportation for a pilot helmet and parachute, you should know that these ultra-silent vehicles are only intended for short distances. A full battery charge will last for 12-20 minutes at an average speed of 20 miles per hour.

We may still be a few years away from a Jetsons-like world of sky-high highways, but this is an exciting step toward the future we were all promised.

“It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… my Uber driver!”