I often speculate about the world in 2048, the year I will turn 100. The easy prediction is that transportation will be fully automated in order to eliminate human error and traffic fatalities, but until recently my shortsighted opinion was that most transportation would remain grounded because of the huge energy required to get cars into the air. I am much less sure about that now.

As soon as the first cars were invented, people started racing them; and as soon as people started racing cars, the auto industry began to boom.

Guess what! The first races of flying electric cars have already been held in Australia. Pictured is a 13.4 foot eVROL (electric vertical take off and landing) Airspeeder. So far the races are in the testing phase using simulators, but flying the cars via remote and then with a pilot cannot be far off.

The speeders hit speeds of over sixty miles per hour. The actual races will feature a pit stop component, because the cars can only stay aloft for fifteen minutes before their dual fast-charge batteries have to be replaced. The best pit stop time so far is 55 seconds.

Plans for future races with more competitors are underway in Australia and Los Angeles. The events will be live streamed.