The concept of flying cars has long been a mainstay in imaginings of the future, and Alef Aeronautics believes it is one step closer to making that future a reality.

The California based company has released videos showing their flying car, an ultralight version of the Alef Model Zero, taking off vertically and travelling over a parked truck.

"This is the first publicly released video of a car driving and taking off vertically," the company said.

The company said the test was carried out without any danger to the public and without any safety issues.

Alef Aeronautics CEO Jim Dukhovny said that he hoped the video would have a significant impact.

"We really hope that it will have a similar impact as the Wright Brothers video, in the sense that it proves to the humanity that the new mode of transportation is possible," Dukhovny said.

"It has the independently verifiable proof that this new mode of transportation does work and does exist.

"And we hope it will start some kind of a new market, new economy for this new mode of transportation, which we call flying cars."

Dukhovny said that buying a flying car would be "prohibitively expensive" as they are not in the manufacturing stage yet, but that prices are likely to go down as more are produced.

"The end goal, it should be actually same level or less expensive than Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus or anything like that, because it's less complex," he said.

So when will flying cars become a reality and not something featured in futuristic films?

"It's hard to estimate when as far as the exact year, but I think is going to be a very, very gradual process," Dukhovny said.