Where’s my flying car?
It’s a question that Gen Xers have asked themselves their entire lives, as science fiction portrayals of the 1980s teased a phenomenon that has failed to materialize to date.
However, according to some relatively new reports, these aging demographics could see flying cars develop as they near retirement age.
Reuters reports today on a VW feasibility study into what the company refers to as “vertical mobility” and a query into the effectiveness of working toward a flying automobile.
“Beyond autonomous driving the concept of vertical mobility could be a next step to take our mobility approach into the future,” VW told press. “Therefore we are investigating potential concepts and partners in a feasibility study to identify the possibility to industrialize this approach.”
Volkswagen, according to Reuters staff writing, is “developing a drone that could be licensed” and looking at the possibility of developing airborne autonomous vehicles for China, which is Volkswagen’s largest world market.
Interestingly, VW spokespersons referred to the Chinese market as “technically affine,” which will test the word power of even the SAT-inclined. Affine, we discover in dictionary research, is either an antonym to linear, a geometric designation, or having to do with affinities or relationships between two different things.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley is predicting that airborne “robo-taxis” will be a $1.5 trillion market by 2040. A more modest report by Frost and Sullivan indicates that the company predicts air taxis to originate in Dubai around 2022, and for 430,000 units to be in play by 2040.
Toyota, for its part, has invested nearly $400 million in “vertical takeoff and landing” or “VTOL” technologies.
The flying car continues to be a favorite trope, and high on the technophile’s wish list. Will the idea of drones be modified in order to provide us with cheap and easy autonomous heliport travel? We’ll see within a couple of decades whether all of these predictions come true.
