Over the years, science fiction has written some big cheques that its Asimov couldn’t cash. The closest we’ve gotten to a flying car is strapping some VTOL rotorblades to a Skoda and crossing our fingers. Hoverboards don’t even hover over tarmac, much less water. And the only speed records the Hyperloop has managed to set is for how quickly a company can bankrupt itself.
As a result, travel doesn’t always feel as high-tech as it should. Planes may allow us to slip the surly bonds of gravity but we still haven’t managed to slip the surly bonds of in-flight Adam Sandler movies. And there’s nothing that sours the romance of riding the rails quite like spending four hours listening to a fellow passenger discussing celebrity conspiracy theories.