yes but the way to make cars safe is to - seriously constrain their movements (all cars here move in this direction, you can get off here, you can get on here etc. ), have different types of licenses for different kinds of cars, and limit their speeds based on location.
Jetpacks, and the flying car, have more possible ways to move.
The Jetsons used to show the flying car working the way the normal car did - highways in the sky - that's basically the way it would have to work to be made safe, as long as there are any sizable amount of users of the jetpack or flying car.
The jetpack has of course other hazards associated with it such as the engine being really close to the human operating it with significantly less shielding than one has on the car.
on edit: I think there might have been problems with the car in some Jetsons and George had to parachute to safety, arms crossed and a seriously miffed expression on his face.
So all that said - what would be required of the flying car for it to work well enough to supplant the car? (not the jetpack, that will at best be the skateboard of the sky)
1. It would have to be significantly faster, able to go longer (makes sense this would be the case because obviously you can fly quicker than you can drive so I assume this benefit will be a gimme, but it has to be significant for people to care. If you can make the flight to grandma's house in 3 hours instead of 8 there would be interest)
2. It would have to not cost very much more to own or to run.
3. It would have to not be any less safe for drivers than it currently is to drive - at the beginning this might be the case because less drivers means more safe maybe.
4. there would probably have to be significant safety features built in to keep flying cars from causing catastrophic damage if they failed - this seems to right there make it impossible because it has to not cost much more than a normal car.
5. There would probably have to increase in automation of cars to be able to detect when something wrong, when someone breaking flight rules etc.
6. no internal combustion engine flying cars, because a falling car with internal combustion engine is also a potential bomb.
so what are the benefits - we've already mentioned 1 but are there others?
Conceivably with a mass movement to flying cars instead of cars the infrastructure of cars would no longer be needed or need to be maintained. A utopian vision would then be that all that land that is currently big packed freeways get converted to parks etc. although a cynical vision would say oh nobody would want to pay for that and they turn into dystopian hellholes and kids go there to get eaten by coyotes.
Possible benefit #3 - to make safe have to have much routes for everything but given that we have all the sky conceivably there could be more routes, including emergency routes that would be left to emergency services or people registered for a possible quick route (quick routes to hospital for birth etc.) All of this of course implies flying cars with effective computer surveillance of drivers.
So I see these benefits to flying car - 1. quicker longer trips enabled. 2. No longer need driving car infrastructure 3. possible solutions to congestion are still available with flying car.
But does that mean it is doable.
I think the needed functionality points basically cancels out it ever working but maybe I am pessimistic, although I do think that now we are actually getting to the point where the necessary prerequisites for flying cars are starting to be built - specifically good electric cars and driving automation and services (but way early for that, flying cars in 100 years at this rate)
Drivable aircraft would need to be more convenient than cars.
Does anyone do a pre-drive walk-around and engine test of their car, or do they just turn it on and go? If you're in a city do you request permission to begin a trip from a DMV controller via local frequencies, or just go wherever? Does every home have a runway or just a driveway?
These aren't insurmountable challenges but there are chasms on the way from possible to safe to convenient.
(Also to your point 6, I'd add to the Kzinti lesson: any energy storage device is a weapon effective in proportion to its stored power—gas tank, flywheel, Li+ battery, dammed hydro, you name it.)
Jetpacks, and the flying car, have more possible ways to move.
The Jetsons used to show the flying car working the way the normal car did - highways in the sky - that's basically the way it would have to work to be made safe, as long as there are any sizable amount of users of the jetpack or flying car.
The jetpack has of course other hazards associated with it such as the engine being really close to the human operating it with significantly less shielding than one has on the car.
on edit: I think there might have been problems with the car in some Jetsons and George had to parachute to safety, arms crossed and a seriously miffed expression on his face.