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Science & Technology

Airbus reveals self-driving flying taxis

By T.K. Randall
November 10, 2016 · Comment icon 10 comments

These autonomous taxis could revolutionize public transport. Image Credit: Airbus
The aircraft manufacturer hopes to alleviate traffic congestion with its automated airborne taxi service.
Known as Vahana, the futuristic flying taxi, which can land vertically like a helicopter and can operate without the need for a human pilot, looks like something straight out of a science fiction movie.

Members of the public looking to utilize the service will be able to simply book a flight and have the vehicle come and pick them up before flying them to their destination.
Airbus believes that deploying millions of these flying taxis could help alleviate the problem of traffic congestion because they won't be competing in the same space as existing transport services.

The company however has yet to address how it would get permission to run fleets of flying taxis over large cities or how it intends to keep passengers safe in the event of an accident.

With flight tests scheduled to start at the end of next year though it looks as if the project, far from being a pie-in-the-sky concept, might actually become a reality in the not-too-distant future.

Source: Yahoo! News | Comments (10)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by danielost 8 years ago
they'll have to bury the phone and power lines first, and maybe get rid of some trees.
Comment icon #2 Posted by Child of Bast 8 years ago
I'm ready.
Comment icon #3 Posted by South Alabam 8 years ago
Novel idea, but I'd need to see how to survive what could go wrong, before I'd get in one.
Comment icon #4 Posted by Calibeliever 8 years ago
Haven't heard from these guys in a while: http://moller.com/moller_skycar200.html
Comment icon #5 Posted by paperdyer 8 years ago
The "Jonny Cab" of the sky! I would think that the "taxi" will need to have it's own parking/landing space on a roof or some other type of structure that's above the current ground level.as not to directly interact with traditional modes of transportation. I hope the FAA will have enough sense to have a pilot on board to manually fly the vehicle if a malfunction occurs. 
Comment icon #6 Posted by danielost 8 years ago
if a malfunction acures someone is dead.  either the passengers or the person the car lands on.
Comment icon #7 Posted by bigjonalien 8 years ago
Self driving solves the fly into a building problem. As the sky car internal and external airbags with parachutes.malfunctioning will be a self diagnosis problem.
Comment icon #8 Posted by danielost 8 years ago
yes but on parachutes there is no control.
Comment icon #9 Posted by Silver_Lyre 8 years ago
It would be a massive undertaking to alter infrastructure. Still i would have thought a hovercraft would have been the next natural progression after the car.  
Comment icon #10 Posted by MissJatti 8 years ago
Air Congestion Traffic


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