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Airbus plans to test self-driven airborne taxi by the end of 2017
Airbus is not kidding around about flying cars – the maker of airborne transportation vehicles plans to test out a prototype self-flying small urban transport made for single-passenger travel by the end of this year, according to Airbus CEO Tom Enders (via Reuters). Airbus has been developing its autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) concept through Project Vahana, an internal project designed to test viability and refine a prototype for urban air transport. (techcrunch.com) Plus d'info...
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Exposed propellers around the non-aviation public is going to be a problem. I'm sure that the safety and well-being agencies will have their say about this potential hazard and the design will change from the artist sketch found in the news article.
I'd be willing to gamble that with the number of these that will have to ultimately be built and have in the air, that they will lean towards an electric enclosed "turbofan."
You bring up a very valid point. HOWEVER, I've been waiting to fly around the Beltway for my entire driving life, so BRING IT!!!
You bring up a very valid point. HOWEVER, I've been waiting to fly around the Beltway for my entire driving life, so BRING IT!!!
If this remains at the core of the design I imagine it will have proximity sensors that will kill-switch the propellers in some fashion if a body is detected within a chosen safety radius. It wouldn't be that much of a technical challenge, assuming these things aren't landing on crowded residential streets.
There are, at the moment, a dozen of different companies around the world, whose projects, include, self-driven airbones, or flying vehicles, or something in this direction. In my point of view the reasons are clear, the emerging market for going out of the heavy jam in cities like Los Angeles, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Shangai, Moscow, and the lots of others, where this new form of transportation can come to solve it. But, of course it will solve one problem, and create others, but it is another history.
Who is responsible for Regulating ? Is the air safety at jeopardy ?
My guess is that self driving cars and self flying aircraft will stand a good chance of being sued out of existence. Tech may be there but testamony by humans outweighs what computers say in court. Just saying
