The self-flying car may become more than just a figment of our imaginations, as aerospace company Airbus wants to test a prototype by the end of 2017.
One year after its decision to develop autonomous flying cars, Airbus is reported to have set the first test of a standard stand-alone taxi for a passenger by the end of 2017.
The company envisions a world that, at the touch of a button, vehicles can fly over congestion. In the vision of the company, everyone will be able to book an autonomous air taxi using a mobile app.
"One hundred years ago urban transportation became underground, but today we have the technological means to go above ground," Airbus CEO Tom Enders said at the DLD digital technology conference in Munich.
"We're in an experimental phase, but we're taking this one development very seriously."
Enders added that these technologies should be green to avoid further pollution and city congestion and that the use of the sky could help reduce costs for city infrastructure planners.
"With flying, we don't have to spend billions on bridges and roads."
The project of the first autonomous vehicle is called Vahana, and it was launched in February 2016 by A3, the Airbus Group based in Silicon Valley. The design of the vehicle was completed in the 3rd quarter of 2016, and in August, engineers began developing the subsystems of the prototype vehicle that will be used for testing.
While Airbus will have to overcome regulatory barriers over the coming years (US regulators are very conservative with unmanned aircraft and stand-alone vehicles), the CEO of the company is convinced that his vision is realistic.
"I'm not a Star Wars fan, but it's not crazy to imagine that one day our big cities will have flying cars," Enders said in August on 2016.
"In the not-too-distant future, we will be using our smartphones to call a fully automated flying taxi that will land outside our door without a pilot."
In July of 2016 Airbus announced that it will use exciting 3D environments to help airlines improve cab comfort and envision the end result from the start.
