10 Background Star Trek Items More Important Than You Think

Although they're not seen very often, hovercars have been a part of Trek since the Animated Series episode Mudd's Passion, when they could be seen in a parking lot on the planet Motherlode. Since then, they also popped up in Into Darkness, the Next Generation episode All Good Things…, and the Picard episode Remembrance. They were also mentioned when Voyager ran into a 1936 Ford truck in The 37's, and Harry Kim asked, 'so, is this an early hovercar?'

Many people assume that Star Trek's transporter technology completely eliminated the demand for personal vehicles, but seeing these hovercars is important because they disprove that. People will still have the desire to get from point A to point B themselves.

Driving a hovercar when you have the power to instantly teleport anywhere on Earth may seem weird, but for some people, the journey is more important than the destination.

Given that hovercars do not need roads to function, we can also assume that many of Earth's roads have been removed by the 23rd century, freeing up much more space, and leading to more condensed communities. That's all just speculation, though, as many roads still remained.