Heads up, citizens -- the future is coming in faster than anticipated.
At least, that seems to be the case with driverless cars and other automated vehicles. Earlier this week, Uber announced plans to roll out a fleet of driverless Volvos in Pittsburgh by the end of the month.
Now details are emerging about a plan to bring autonomous flying taxis to cities around the world next year. Yes, that's right. Flying taxis. Next year.
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Well, kind of: The ginormous aviation company Airbus plans to have prototypes in the air by the end of 2017 for its ambitious Vahana project. An adorably breathless report in the company's corporate magazine describes Vahana as "an autonomous flying vehicle platform for individual passenger and cargo transport."
According to Airbus, the flying taxis will operate similarly to car-sharing systems such as Uber, with passengers using smartphones to flag a ride. Instead of jumping into cars, though, customers will hop into small drone-like aerial vehicles designed for solo passengers or small amounts of cargo. Details are pretty scarce past that, but Airbus is planning test flights by the end of next year, so it's not like this is some sketch on an engineer's desk in the Silicon Valley office.
The company is also talking about related program that would work like an automated aerial bus system. Instead of providing curbside service, this system would incorporate a network of local helipads in dense urban areas. Customers looking to catch a sky ride would need to hustle over to the nearest landing site. Via Vahana, maybe.
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Airbus already has a vehicle in mind for this short-range sky bus service, but details are being kept strictly under wraps. The company says it can carry several passengers and incorporates multiple propellers. Currently going by the working name of CityAirbus, it's being developed by the company's helicopters division. Both the sky taxis and sky buses would likely be piloted by a human initially, but each is being designed with eventual full automation in mind.
In the company magazine, Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders does what top executives are supposed to do in corporate publications. He thinks big, out loud:
"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," Enders says. "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."
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