Flying cars were thought to be coming as
soon as four years from now, but actually commercial models are coming up
sooner than what had been thought. Air taxi startup Kitty Hawk already has
FAA approval to test its prototype in "uncongested areas." Boeing
air taxi prototypes are in the works and the company expects to fly them
within one year. German startup Volocopter is planning tests in Singapore
next year. Audi and Airbus are testing out a trial run that will soon
covert over to a flying car taxi service.
"It's coming because it has to," said Robin Lineberger, the
leader of Deloitte's Aerospace & Defense industry practice, over speculation
on
why major companies are investing heavily in the technology. "We
have no more room on the ground to move cars around."
Audi is conducting
tests in South America in cooperation with the Airbus subsidiary
Voom. Customers book helicopter flights in Mexico City or Sao Paulo, while an
Audi is at the ready for the journey to or from the landing site. It will
feed data into its autonomous, electric flying taxi prototype, which was
shown taking its first public test flight yesterday at Drone Week in
Amsterdam.
In its first public test flight, the Audi and Airbus flight module
accurately placed a passenger capsule on the ground module, which then drove
from the test grounds in autonomous vehicle mode. It’s expected that as soon
as the next decade starts, Audi customers could use a convenient and efficient
flying taxi service in large cities. It will operate both in the sky and on
the ground, and it being designed around the goals of providing customers
with the opportunity to turn drive time into leisure or work time while still
in the vehicle.
Audi and several of its global automaker competitors see advanced ride
services as the inevitable wave of the future.
“More and more people are moving to cities. And more and more people will
be mobile thanks to automation. In future senior citizens, children, and people
without a driver’s license will want to use convenient robot taxis. If we
succeed in making a smart allocation of traffic between roads and airspace,
people and cities can benefit in equal measure,” said Dr. Bernd Martens, Audi
board member for sourcing and IT, and president of the Audi subsidiary
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Industry watchers and proponents see flying cars becoming part of the
global transportation network and generating as much as $5 billion a year in
service revenue. It ties in closely to automakers and tech giants investing
heavily into automated, electric vehicles expected to soon come to roads.
Autonomous vehicles are expected to face a long phase of dealing with
heavy traffic and competition for road space with human-driven cars and
trucks. Some analysts see the worsening of urban traffic around the world
leading to startups and majors exploring electric scooters as a mobility
option.
Air mobility promises to lift vehicles out of clogged streets and quickly
over to their destinations. Another incentive thought to be supporting flying
cars is the high cost of housing in big cities. Construction projects are
common around the world, but it takes these projects years to be completed.
It also faces the challenge of mounting political opposition in several
cities and dwindling supply of available land.
On the autonomous vehicle side, Waymo, Ford, General Motors, Apple, Uber,
and Lyft, are working hard on testing out these vehicles and integrating them
into shared ride services for corporations and individual riders. That’s
where the concept of “robotaxis” has come from, which has generated a lot of
interest and enthusiasm. Younger consumers, in particular, are more
interested in having convenient, affordable rides than owning cars. Related: Mexico’s
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On the flying car side of the business, aerospace giants like Boeing
and Airbus, Silicon Valley icons like Uber, and auto giants
like Toyota, Volkswagen, and Daimler are jumping into the
market. Jeff Bezos and Amazon are well-known for testing out drone package
delivery test projects, which will help foster the technology into the
commercial side of the business.
Google co-founder Larry Page has played his part in pushing for the new
technology to comet to market. He’s backed a
startup called Opener that is scheduled to have its first product on sale
next year.
Opener’s first air/land craft, which is called BackFly, is capable of
vertical takeoffs and landing. It’s powered entirely from a battery that gets
recharged like an electric car. The startup says that BackFly will be capable
of a fully autonomous flight, but it’s not clear if that will be ready at the
time of its debut.
As ride-hailing giant Uber continues to push its potential 2019 initial
public offering, the company sees its Uber Air flying taxi division to be
part of its future. Uber has been in discussions with several companies,
including Textron’s Bell, in its list of vehicle concepts with partners. The
company wants Uber Air to have 60 miles of flying taxi range, so that
customers can be airlifted across traffic-congested cities where Uber already
has a strong presence.
By Jon LeSage for Oilprice.com
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