Even as self-driving cars become more and more popular, there's one problem that Silicon Valley hasn't solved: the traffic jam. But Airbus Group, a U.S. aeronautics and space company, thinks that it has a solution. The company's Silicon Valley branch recently announced it's been working on a secret project titled "Vahana", an autonomous flying vehicle that can be used for both passenger and cargo (货物) transport.
Airbus' flying taxi resembles a drone in design, and would use multiple propellers (螺旋桨) to travel medium-length distances. Developers in France and Germany are working on an electrically operated platform that would allow the flying taxi to carry multiple passengers once between city destinations. Currently, no countries allow completely autonomous aerial vehicles, so the vehicle would initially be manned by a pilot.
Flight tests of the first Vahana prototype (原型) are planned, in the hope of bringing the product to consumers quickly. That's about a decade sooner than another future-travel system Hyperloop One.
"I'm no big fan of Star Wars, but it's not crazy to imagine that one day our big cities will have flying cars making their way along roads in the sky," says Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders. "In a not too distant future, we'll use our smartphones to book a fully automated flying taxi that will land outside our front door — without any pilot."
But before you get too excited about beating rush-hour traffic, it's worth noting that the company has a lot of technological kinks to work out before the product is ready to test. The same sensor technology that allows self-driving cars to avoid accidents doesn't exist for aerial vehicles. Airbus Group isn't the only company trying to get in the autonomous air transportation game. There are a number of cargo drone companies on the market and the Ehang 184, a Chinese passenger drone, began flight testing in June.
