Much has changed since the time of Commander Corry in terms of what we drive around in. Over the past 15 years, transport has changed radically. Magnetic levitation and the turbo-fusion motor have speeded up the Monorail and just about tripled the capacity.
Other forms of transport has changed, too. The two-seat, rather small Jet-Car "Chariot" that Buzz Corry knew well has been pretty much replaced by the Masterson "Magnus", aircar. What has made that passible is the REPELLO-RAY.
Now, fast air-cars, "truckplanes" and "chopper vans" which derive their nickname from the ancient helicopters with which they have noting in common save that they can hover and are usually shuttle vehicles like the Space Patrol Shuttle vans that run among the various sections of the 4+ square miles of the Space Patrol Complex, made by Jet-Car and several others have nearly replaced the wheeled cars. These and fast scooters make up much of our transport. The scooters evolved from those developed for the needs of those who were physically impaired and fast two-wheeled powereful motorcycle of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These small vehicles act as personal trasnport, are used in large indoor areas, are powered by strong, rechargeable batteries.
In fact, most of our vehicles are indoor-capable, using batteries or atomic motors, they do not steal oxygen from the air and Space Patrol Headquarters not only uses the Repello-Ray scooters a-plenty, but is riddled with passageways for fairly large maintenance and official staff vehicles to such as extent as would never be considered in previous times. the SP/HQ is one of about two dozen "vehicle friendly" buildings in the Solar System of which there are about 35 in toto throughot space.
The larger vehicle is powered by a different menas. During the 20th century they invented the High Temperature Gas Reactor. This was an astounding atomic powerplant, the size of a desk. Well, over the thousand years, we've shrunk it down, developed the mini "turbonique" to generate the ray and power the motor. The steam that turns the turbine is superheated in a 95% closed loop so that there is very little loss and a once-Standard yearly small addition is all that needs doing there. That and a 3-year check-up and re-fuel are really all there is to it and you have a very robust, fast car.
Another thing is that you see very few cars in the city proper. Cities are ringed with parking garages and the scooter is fast enough to have bred the "perimeter runners"; those hotshot racers who, at scheduled times race along the beltway that marks the perimeter of the Space Patrol compex at speeds exceeding 120 MPH. Theft of transport has been made nearly impossible by the use of bio-metrics and computers. That thousnad-year-old technology is now more reliable than physical key/lock system. Imporovements in our system of politics has made the distrust of officials, a key impediment to the development of security systems in the tweny-first century, nonexistent.
The two vehicles that you see here, the Official Space Patrol Staff Car and the "Robo-Taxi" are Mallory "Starbirds" named for Darryl Starbird, the twentieth century proponent of the "spit-teardrop" bubble top, which these cars use. In our case, the top is split into three sections to acommodate a row of 3 bucket seats with the driver in the center seat. FAS-TRAKS also are a common vehicle, especially favored by Space Patrol for on-planet duty throughout the Solar system and beyond.