Airbus has teamed up with automaker Audi to develop a prototype of a flying car. For more than a half-century, people have envisioned flight as a regular form of day-to-day transportation. But even after all those years, road-based vehicles remain the most common form of daily transportation. Airbus and Audi are hoping to change that, however, by introducing a new flying car.
While presenting at the annual Drone Week vent in Amsterdam, Airbus and Audi unveiled a miniature prototype version of a flying car. This isn’t just an ordinary flying car, though (if there’s such a thing). The bold new prototype is designed to pick up autonomous cars off the road, essentially carrying them to their intended destination.
Autonomous cars are becoming more and more common, not just in the United States but throughout the entire world. Studies have shown that autonomous cars, also known as self-driving cars, are safer than manual-operated cars. They typically feature an array of sensors, cameras and a Global Positioning System (GPS) that allows for safe, accurate navigation of roads and highways.
It’s important to note that the flying car prototype demonstrated by Airbus and Audio isn’t full scale. Rather, it’s about one-quarter the intended size. Nonetheless, the demonstration left Drone Week spectators mesmerized. You can check out Airbus and Audi’s flying car demonstration by clicking this YouTube link.
“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, president of Audi subsidiary Italdesign.
So, when can you expect to Airbus and Audi’s new flying car in the skies? Neither company have announced an official release date. In the aforementioned YouTube video, however, Audi says that it could be available within a decade. In an effort to prepare its flying car for launch, the two companies are performing tests in South America.
Audi isn’t the only automaker that’s working on a flying car. Several other automakers also have their own flying car project in the works, including Volvo and Toyota. But Audi and Airbus’s flying car takes a different approach by featuring a pickup system that can lift and carry autonomous cars to their intended destination.
