Airbus to test driverless 'flying taxis' in 2017
'Many of the technologies needed, such as batteries, motors and avionics are most of the way there,' says project executive
Aerospace giant Airbus is designing a flying driverless taxi that you can summon via an app on your smartphone.
On its website, in an article titled "Future of urban mobility: My kind of flyover" Airbus said the first vehicle prototype could be built and tested as soon as end of next year as part of a project known as "Vahana".
"Many of the technologies needed, such as batteries, motors and avionics are most of the way there," explained Airbus project executive Rodin Lyasoff in the article published in the company's online magazine Wednesday.
Airbus believes the global demand for the "flying cars" will run in to millions of vehicles and that demand will help reduce development costs.
"In as little as 10 years, we could have products on the market that revolutionise urban travel for millions of people," said Lyasoff.
Lyasoff said one major challenge will be to secure reliable technology to ensure the "autonomous taxis" can sense and avoid other objects.