Seriously? Minister's flying car announcement met with incredulity

"Where we're going, we don't NEED roads!"

PETALING JAYA: "If pigs could fly..." seems to be the general consensus among Malaysians regarding a purported "first-ever flying car" that Datuk Seri Redzuan Md Yusof said would  be unveiled soon.

On Feb 27, the Entrepreneur Development Minister  said a prototype of the car already existed and would be unveiled later this year.

However, based on the comments posted The Star Online's FB page, it would seem many people are dubious about it, labelling it "impossible".

User Owners Club said: "Dear Menteri, it's too early for April Fool's."
"Haven't learned how to crawl, already want to learn how to fly," Facebook user Sony Liew said.
One person made references to regulations in the country for flying drones: "You have so many rules for flying drones... Flying cars?" said user Acoi Mat Noh.

Despite the deep well of scepticism among Malaysians, flying cars appear to be close to becoming reality in the rest of the world.

It was reported in 2018 that popular ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc had partnered with NASA, supplying information to the agency so that it could simulate the flight of a small passenger-carrying aircraft.

Also reported last year, Uber announced that it would open an "Advanced Technologies Center" in Paris, which would become a development hub for its flying car project - Uber Elevate.

There were a few who were positive about this announcement.

"It takes a very long time to exist. A lot of feasibility study to be done before can execute the plan... be patient," said Mohd Ariff.

Another commenter Mohd Redzuan said the flying car project was a way for the government to create an environment that stimulated people to think about new technology.

He said it was a "realistic target" as Malaysia already had the technology.

"It is all about the speed of implementation. We are providing the catalyst and ecosystem to stimulate the people to think beyond what we do today," he said.

However, many Facebook users continue to be sceptical, saying we should solve "current problems" before looking too far into the future.

"We should first settle Malaysia's number one problem – malfunction(ing) power windows," said user Adzwan Ab Manas.- Star