Stand-alone vehicles are being prepared by Airbus! An Airbus team of engineers is reportedly developing autonomous taxi fares to fly over traffic to transport individual passengers and freight in crowded cities. The utopian vision may sound a little overturned, but according to the company they plan to start testing the prototype of a vehicle at the end of 2017.
In FORUM a corporate magazine of Airbus, the project executive, Rodin Lyasoff claims that "In just ten years, we could have programs on the market that would 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 many practical issues to consider. The regulatory authorities of USA they are very conservative with drones and autonomous vehicles, and so the 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 we aim to solve as soon as possible," says Lyasoff. Furthermore, when (and if) air taxis are operational and legal, will there be no shift of 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 cars along the streets in the sky," he said.
"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
