Flying cars and autonomous busses - the future of urban mobility?
126 views · Published 8 October 2018 · 6:10 · Indexed 26 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(3 Oct 2018) LEADIN How will we get around urban spaces in the future ? According to exhibitors at the Paris Motor Show, flying cars and autonomous busses will revolutionise the way we travel around large cities, sooner that you might expect. STORYLINE This is a "Flying Car" from the Munich-based company FLUTR, which stands for "Flying Urban Transport." The drone-like vehicle has four propellers, making it smaller than the 18 propelled flying taxi developed by another German company called Volocopter. According to FLUTR there are also some other notable differences to the Volocopter and other drone-like flying vehicles. "It is like a drone but a convertible drone. It means that the propellers can turn and it transforms into an aircraft. And thanks to this new technology it can fly further and it can stay in the air longer than a normal drone," says FLUTR engineer Vince Ferrndon. According to Ferrndon, the FLUTR flying car can stay in the air for one hour and fly for 200 kilometers at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour. However, as the flying car is still in the prototype stage the figures would need to be tested with a production ready vehicle. The vision behind the FLUTR flying car is that it can be used as a taxi, but also that people are going to be able to fly themselves - just like in a normal car. But how about a pilot's license? Ferrndon says it will be possible to convince civil aviation authorities to start giving simplified pilots licenses for use with half-autonomous flying vehicles like the FLUTR flying car. "We have already talked to civil aviation for this. We are not the only ones, most drone manufacturers want actually to propose the same kind of licence," he says. "So it is going to be something in between a car license and a pilot license. But definitely much more simple than a pilot licence." Many companies are developing concepts for urban mobility. As cities grow bigger and bigger, the standard transportation network of roads, trains, trams and underground systems might not cope with the mass of commuters. But can a flying car be a solution? "Throughout the year we have been seeing more and more about flying cars. And the interesting thing about flying cars is that calling them a flying cars is a bit of a misnomer. They are kind of more like flying taxis in a lot of situations," says Antuan Goodwin, car review editor, CNET's Roadshow "Uber for example thinks that they are going to be testing these things in the next two years and they are going to be doing test flights in cities in the next five. So flying cars are definitely on the horizon, one way or another. It is just a matter of how long before we get them." At the Paris Motor show, companies like Renault are also showing off their vision for a future where autonomous vehicles pick up people and bring them to their destination without the need for a driver. Most of these concepts are not going to become reality in the next few years - they are an idea for the more distant future. But some autonomous vehicles are already on the roads in cities around the world. Autonomous busses are now in used in several European cities. Two Dutch companies, Altran and 2Getthere, are showing a bus at the show that they have jointly produced. It looks futuristic, and of course it is electric and fully self-driving. So is this also a distant dream? "It is going to the roads. Very soon," says the aptly named Ralf Bus, Altran director of marketing "Next year, 25 of these vehicles will be running in Dubai to connect the mainland metro station to blue waters island." Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b98123d17d1becb43ea3fb3eb5cc9f30
