There’s a future the place we don’t want roads and common people such as you and me can soar right into a boat-sized electrical pod and simply fly wherever on a whim. Whereas we’ve been perfecting the miracle of human flight for greater than a century, instantaneous air transportation has lengthy been relegated to science fiction.
However within the final decade, many corporations have stepped as much as assist get flying vehicles and air taxis out of the Hollywood film magic bubble. Startups like Joby Aviation and Archer are constructing electrical vertical take-off and touchdown (eVTOL) plane that may taxi a number of individuals round within the sky with out burning nasty gas. The air taxi dream is already spending some regulatory milestones: the FAA has now established guidelines.
Though these automobiles aren’t precisely the “flying vehicles” we’ve imagined, it is a quickly rising new discipline with large established automakers like Toyota, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others both bankrolling their very own ventures or one of many dozens of startups. And there’s a complete lot of drama and unpredictability on this new business, from combating over “stolen” patents to the businesses that’ve didn’t survive, like Lilium and the Larry Web page-funded Kitty Hawk. Scroll all the way down to learn the newest on air taxis.