Autonomous flying vehicles are being prepared by Airbus! A team of Airbus engineers is reportedly developing autonomous flying taxis aimed at flying above traffic to transport individual passengers and cargo in busy cities. The utopian vision may sound a bit far-fetched, but according to the company they plan to start testing a prototype vehicle in late 2017.
In FORUM a company magazine of Airbus, the project executive, Mr. Rodin Lyasoff claims that “In just ten years, we could haveletteron the market that will revolutionize urban mobility for millions of people.”
The project, named Vahana, started in February of 2016, and is a division of the Airbus based (where else?) In Silicon Valley. The design of the vehicle is already complete, and now engineers have begun to develop the subsystems of the first test vehicle.
The idea of flying above traffic is great, but there are a lot of practicalities issues which should be considered. US regulators are very conservative with drones and autonomous vehicles, so a ten-year timeline doesn't seem realistic.
Then there are the technical obstacles: the aircraft must have a technology that allows it to "feel" and avoid that it is still under development.
“This is one of the biggest problems which we aim to resolve as soon as possible", says Lyasoff. Furthermore, when (and if) air taxis are operational and legal, won't there be a shift in traffic from the ground to the air?
Despite the challenges, Airbus CEO Tom Enders is convinced that the company's plans are realistic.
"I'm not a Star Wars fan, but it's not crazy to imagine that one day our big cities will have flying machines cars along the roads in the sky" he says.
"In the not too distant future, we will use our smartphones to book a fully automated flying taxi that will land outside our door. - Without a pilot ”
Photo: techcrunch.com