Porsche Can Now Build Flying Taxis
Flying cars have been a hot topic among several automobile companies, and Volkswagen's sports car maker Porsche is willing to compete.
Porsche could create flying passenger vehicles, Porsche sales chief Detlev von Platen told a German magazine, according to Reuters.
At last year's Geneva Motor Show in Le Grand-Saconnex, Switzerland, Airbus and Italdesign disclosed their plans to develop a vehicle that is both a car and a drone. The companies named the concept vehicle "Pop Up."
The vehicle features a "passenger capsule," and the car could disconnect from its wheels and take to the skies when the passengers get stuck in traffic. "Pop Up" was conceptualized with the vision that flying vehicles would be a viable solution to the constant heavy traffic in crowded cities.
"Right now, the urban sky is quite underutilised. The grid-like layout of roads doesn't actually do it for us, and we think that by combining air and ground we will get a much better use of the space in our cities," Airbus General Manager Mathias Thomsen said, told Dezeen.
The modular vehicle is also predicted to be part of the ride-hailing system. According to Reuters, the flying vehicles Porsche is planning to develop would provide passengers with some control over the direction of the vehicle. But, the major flying role of the vehicles would be automated; therefore, passengers would not need pilot licenses.
In the competition for flying vehicles are German startups Volocopter, Lilium Jet and eVolo, and US-based Joby Aviation and Terrafugia.
Meanwhile, in January, Volocopter and Workhorse showed off their flying vehicles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. According to the Daily Mail, both companies envisioned to have Uber-style flying taxi services as well.
While Volocopter used the drone as Intel's keynote was happening, Workhorse did not have a chance to demonstrate SureFly, its flying taxi, due to the rain.
"Potentially in years to come, you would be able to take your phone out and pull up a transportation application, and similar to what you do with a taxi today, summon this to your location, hop in, tell it where you're going," an exhibitor at the event said, told the Daily Mail.
Volocopter claims to be the world's first self-driving flying taxi.
